Hawley threatens to punish 'woke corporations' for supporting voting rights

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) on Thursday said Georgia’s controversial new voter suppression law is like his own attempt in January to get millions of votes thrown out of the 2020 presidential election.

Appearing on Fox News’ “Ingraham Angle,” Hawley lashed out at criticism from Georgia-based companies like Coca-Cola and Delta for opposing the state’s recent voter suppression effort.

Georgia’s law, signed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp on March 25, requires the additional burden of ID to vote absentee, shortens early voting in runoff elections, restricts the availability of ballot boxes from what was allowed in 2020, prohibits providing food and water to voters standing in line, and gives Republicans in the state the power to take over county election boards.

The bill was passed after President Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in the previously Republican-held state in November 2020 and special elections were won by Democratic Sens. Raphael Warnock and John Ossooff against incumbent Republican senators in January.

The provisions of the bill led civil rights and activist groups to raise the alarm and push corporations to oppose the legislation.

“What’s happening in Georgia is what they tried to do for those of us who stood up for election integrity back in January,” said Hawley. “Anyone who has said that our elections need to be free, they need to be fair, we need to consider election reform, they try to cancel you.”

Hawley was widely criticized in January for his attempt, along with Republicans in the House and Senate, to oppose the certification of the 2020 presidential election.

If Hawley and his allies had been successful in their attempt, votes from millions of Americans in multiple states for President Joe Biden would not have been counted.

As justification for their anti-democratic position, Hawley’s group echoed Donald Trump’s claims about election irregularities despite those same claims being dismissed from a series of cases brought into federal court. In some instances, the judges who ruled against throwing out votes had been appointed by Trump.

The vote on Jan. 6 came just hours after Hawley was photographed cheering on the crowd outside the Capitol pushing for the election results to be overturned. Some members of that crowd would later be involved in the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

From the April 8 edition of Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle”:

PETE HEGSETH, Fox News: Senator, I’ve got to ask you though because you talked a lot about what’s happening down in Georgia, the way in which Major League Baseball and other woke corporations have rallied behind the sort of calls of racism, Jim Crow 2.0 from Joe Biden.

 

You called for them to be busted up. What needs to happen when it comes to election integrity and the way in which big corporations are ganging up to get their way?

 

JOSH HAWLEY: Well, you know, what’s happening in Georgia is what they tried to do for those of us who stood up for election integrity back in January. Anyone who has said that our elections need to be free, they need to be fair, we need to consider election reform, they try to cancel you.

 

And now the woke corporations are trying to do the same thing to Georgia and they’re going to try to do it to anybody, any state, any person, who stands up for election integrity.

 

When it comes to these corporations, they’ve gotten big and powerful because government has helped them, government has subsidized them, and government has looked the other way and it’s time to bust them up.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.