Josh Hawley defends his fist pump before the Capitol riot

Sen. Josh Hawley does not regret giving a clinched fist salute to a group of Trump supporters in the run-up to the Capitol riot because, as he explained Tuesday, there’s no proof members of that group participated in violent acts.  

‘No, because I don’t know which of those protesters – if any of them – those demonstrators, participated in the criminal riot,’ Hawley said during a Washington Post Live interview. ‘And I think it’s a slur on the thousands and thousands, tens of thousands, of people who came to the Capitol that day to demonstrate peacefully, to lump them in with the criminal rioters and say, “oh you’re all basically the same.”‘ 

The Missouri Republican argued that people who came to Washington, D.C., on January 6 to see now former President Donald Trump speak at the ‘Save America’ rally should get the same treatment as peaceful demonstrators who participated in Black Lives Matter protests last summer. 

Sen. Josh Hawley said he has no regrets for giving a clinched-fist salute to a group of supporters of former President Donald Trump in the run-up to the Capitol riot saying ‘don’t know which of those protesters – if any of them … participated in the criminal riot’ 

Sen. Josh Hawley gestured toward a group of Trump supporters as he headed into the Capitol to challenge the Electoral College vote counts in two key swing states, which breathed further life into the so-called ‘big lie’ 

Hawley argued that demonstrators who showed up to see President Donald Trump speak on January 6 shouldn’t be lumped in with the individuals who engaged in violent acts during the Capitol riot 

‘Throughout all last summer we heard over and over it’s important to distinguish between the peaceful protesters [at] the BLM protests and the rioters,’ Hawley said. ‘I agreed with that then. I said that then. I think the same is true of those on January 6.’

‘The tens of thousands of folks who came to D.C., the overwhelming majority of whom are peaceful,’ he added. 

Hawley recalled that the group of people he saluted to were not engaging in criminal behavior at the time. 

‘When I walked by that particular group of folks were standing there peacefully behind police barricades well off of the plaza,’ he said. ‘And I waved to them, gave them the thumbs up, pumped my fist up to them and thanked them for being there and they had every right to do that,’ he added. 

Hawley was the first U.S. senator to sign onto a House Republican plan to contest Electoral College votes in some swing states during the Congressional certification process on January 6.  

Scholars believe that Congress doesn’t have the actual authority to overturn the election during the Constitutionally mandated January 6 session, but the move – pushed by Trump – breathed further life into the so-called ‘big lie.’ 

Trump has, for months, made false claims about the election, pushing that he had been robbed out of a second term. 

When rioters crashed into the Capitol Building, House members and senators were back in their respective chambers because Hawley and others had contested Arizona’s Electoral College votes.  

After the riot, when the counting resumed, Hawley again delayed the day’s conclusion by hours by forcing a vote on Pennsylvania’s Electoral College count too.