On Thursday evening, the Jan. 6 committee played stunning footage of Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) running away from a crowd of pro-Trump vigilantes who had been seen raging just hours earlier.
While the clip clearly showed the Republican lawmaker running away, nearly 24 hours later, he pledged to a group of young conservative activists that he would not “run” from a battle.
“Hey, listen, I know what I’m talking about because they did it to me,” he proudly declared at the Turning Point USA summer conference in Tampa, Fla., on Friday evening, referring to being considered a “traitor” by pushing for “electoral integrity”. “I ran on January 6 of last year in the state of Pennsylvania,” he boasted.
“And I just want to say to all the liberals out there and the liberal media, in case you haven’t gotten the message yet, I have no regrets,” Hawley continued. “And I’m not backing down. I’m not going to apologize, I’m not going to get close, I’m not going to run away from you.
“I will not bend the knee,” he concluded.
The statements come as both Hawley and former President Donald Trump try to push back the Jan. 6 hearing.
On Thursday night, Trump had an overnight meltdown on his social media site, Truth Social.
“I had an election rigged and stolen from me and our country. The United States is going to hell,” he said after midnight. “Am I supposed to be happy?”
A source close to the former president told The Daily Beast during the hearing that Trump has expressed his continued frustration with the “one-sided forum,” which provides no opportunity for “cross-examination” or Trump’s ability to “present- yes”. [his] side.”
“There is no courtroom in this country where this is allowed,” said the source, who speaks regularly with Trump.