Josh Hawley’s petulant behavior and extreme hypocrisy got called out on the Senate floor Thursday evening and it was beautiful to watch.
Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz tore into Hawley after the Republican objected to a call to consider one of Joe Biden’s nominees for a position in the Department of Defense. This is apparently something Hawley has made a habit of. He’s been blocking Biden’s nominees to the department as a little one-man protest while insisting Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin resign.
Schatz points out that this isn’t how anything works.
“That is not a serious request,” Schatz said of Hawley’s demand that Austin resign. “People used to come to me during the Trump administration all the time—’Do you think Trump should resign? Do you think Tillerson should resign?’ That is stupid.”
“Of course, I think all the people I disagree with should quit their jobs and be replaced with people I love,” he quipped. “Of course, I think they should all resign—That is not how this world works. That is not a reasonable request from a U.S. Senator: ‘Until the Secretary of Defense quits his job, I am going to block all his nominees.’ That is preposterous.”
Schatz laid into Hawley’s extreme hypocrisy—that the guy who “raised his fist in solidarity with the insurrectionists” is now actively “damaging the Department of Defense.”
He continued: “This comes from a guy who, before the Russian invasion, suggested that maybe it would be wise for Zelenskyy to make a few concessions about Ukraine and their willingness to join NATO. This comes from a guy who, just about a month ago, voted against Ukraine aid. He is saying it is going too slow. He voted no. He voted no on Ukraine aid, and now, he has the gall to say it is going too slow.”
To summarize: Hawley voted against sending Ukraine aid, and now he’s criticizing Joe Biden for that aid not moving fast enough, and as punishment, he’s blocking Biden’s nominees to the Department of Defense, which only further holds up aid and other Ukraine strategy and support.
Schatz has expressed his frustration at this hypocrisy a number of times before this and watching his speech, you can really tell that he has zero patience for Hawley at this point.
All of this, Schatz says, is “coming from a person who exonerated Donald Trump for extorting Zelenskyy for withholding lethal aid. They withheld lethal aid until—unless—Zelenskyy would release false smears against Joe Biden’s son, and then [Hawley] voted to exonerate President Trump for this. So spare me the new solidarity with the Ukrainians and with the free world, because this man’s record is exactly the opposite.”
It really is satisfying to see Hawley so expertly eviscerated on the basis of just his own terrible record alone.
(image: Tom Williams-Pool/Getty Images)
