Josh Hawley accused of lying about origin of his 'Made in USA' Jan. 6 mugs

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) is one of the Senate’s most vocal critics of China and of the United States’ imports of Chinese goods. On Monday, a fellow Republican in his own state’s congressional delegation accused him of selling Chinese-made coffee mugs.

Hawley’s campaign announced Monday that it was selling mugs featuring a photo of the first-term senator on Jan. 6, 2021, gesturing his support for pro-Donald Trump activists rallying to urge the overturning of the 2020 presidential election results. Shortly after Hawley gestured with the fist pump that’s now pictured on the mugs, thousands of the insurrectionists illegally stormed the Capitol in a deadly attempt to halt the certification of the vote in the Electoral College.

The sales pitch presents the mugs as an effective way to “trigger” the left, boasting, “This Made in America mug is the perfect way to enjoy Coffee, Tea, or Liberal Tears!”

His campaign’s store says the mugs, selling for $20 each, are “Made in USA.”

Rep. Billy Long (R-MO) tweeted a photo of one of Hawley’s mugs on Monday with a “Made in China” label on the bottom: “When I saw folks in ‘Hartzler for Senate’ T-Shirts that were made in the Dominican Republic frantically taking Josh Hawley’s ‘Made in China’ stickers off his coffee mugs before Saturday’s breakfast I knew the jig was up. Two #AmericaFirst candidates were about to join forces.”

Long is running against Rep. Vicky Hartzler and other Republicans for the GOP nomination to run this year for the U.S. Senate seat that will be open due to the retirement of Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO). Hawley has endorsed Hartzler in the race.

Jim Swift, senior editor of the anti-Trump conservative website the Bulwark, and St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Tony Messenger also tweeted Monday that the mugs were made in China.

A Hawley campaign spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Hawley has previously said that he has no regrets about egging on the insurrection, arguing last May that his gesture of support was fine “because I don’t know which of those protesters, if any of them, those demonstrators, participated in the criminal riot, and I think it’s a slur on the thousands and thousands, tens of thousands, who came to the Capitol that day to demonstrate peacefully, to lump them in with the criminal rioters.”

Hawley’s apparent sale of products made in China would seem to contradict his rhetoric.

Since the start of the pandemic, Hawley has repeatedly blamed China for the coronavirus and demanded that it be “held accountable.” He has called for the Biden administration to confront “the China threat” and demanded that NBC forgo its entire broadcast of the Beijing Winter Olympics, citing China’s “abysmal record on human rights” and accusing the network of “placing profits over principles.”

“In the midst of Joe Biden’s supply chain crisis, it’s time we took bold action to end our dependence on #China and other foreign nations,” Hawley tweeted in October. “I’m introducing legislation to require that our critical goods and supplies actually be made in America.”

His bill makes no mention of campaign coffee mugs.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.