Politico has demanded that Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) stop using the infamous photo of Hawley raising his fist in the air as if in approval toward protesters who would later participate in the Capitol riot of January 6, on his campaign merchandise.
Hawley’s campaign, vying for re-election, began selling ceramic coffee mugs featuring the phrase “Show Me Strong” with copies of the photo for $20.
“We do not authorize its use by the Hawley campaign for the purpose of political fundraising, which the campaign has been put on notice of by legal counsel,” a spokesperson for Politico told The Hill in a statement today. “We are eagerly awaiting a response, but in the interim again respectfully ask that the campaign immediately cease and desist unauthorized use of the image.”
Later, Hawley spokesperson Kyle Plotkin told E&E News that the campaign had not received Politico’s letter.
“We haven’t received any correspondence from POLITICO or anyone else, but we are in full compliance with the law,” Plotkin said. “Perhaps POLITICO can show us the correspondence they sent to the many liberal groups who also used the photo.”
Hawley has refused to accept responsibility for the role he played on January 6, the day he voted against certifying President Joe Biden‘s election win and groups of former President Donald Trump‘s supporters laid siege to the Capitol in a failed bid to stop the electoral certification.
The attack, which resulted in five deaths, was spurred by President Trump’s falsehoods about the election, which Hawley often regurgitated despite the lack of any credible evidence.
Hawley later told a Missouri news outlet that his critics are part of a “woke mob” and pushed back against any suggestion that those who participated in the violence are also guilty of sedition.
These criticisms are “not only crazy—it’s a lie. It is simply false and I’m not going to give into it for a second,” Hawley claimed, though in the same breath he rebuked the violence, saying those involved must be “punished to the fullest extent of the law.”
Hawley’s actions ultimately made him the target of an ad campaign by the Republican Accountability Project that also criticized Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) for his actions on January 6.
“These representatives and senators helped incite the attack on the Capitol by spreading lies about the election,” Sarah Longwell, the executive director of the Republican Accountability Project, said in late January 2021. “They have proved that they are unfit to hold office. They should be nowhere near power.”
“It took a lot of players within the Republican party to convince the vast majority of their voters that the election was fraudulent,” Longwell added. “We are here to be an institutional memory of what happened and who said what.”
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