Sen. Josh Hawley on Thursday condemned the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol but described this week’s Senate impeachment trial proceedings against former President Donald Trump as “a total kangaroo court.”
“You’re not going to get anything but condemnation from me for what happened with those criminals at the Capitol on Jan. 6, but that doesn’t make the trial any more legitimate than it is, which is totally illegitimate — no basis in the Constitution,” Hawley (R-Mo.) said in a Fox News interview.
Hawley, who greeted protesters at the Capitol before riots began on Jan. 6 with a raised fist, said those attacks were “horrific.”
“What we’re seeing is what we lived through. It’s what my staff lived through,” Hawley said. “The criminals who did it ought to be prosecuted as they are being and ought to be given the full measure of the law.”
When asked if he was acting out of loyalty to Trump, he insisted he was acting on behalf of his voters and the oath he took as a senator.
“The Republican Party — if it belongs to anybody — it belongs to the voters, the people who sent us here,” he said. “That’s who I’m accountable to.”