Hawley now says objection to Biden’s victory was not meant to keep Trump in power despite past comments

“I said to (Baier), what I have always said … For me, January 6 is the end of this process, this is where the votes are counted, certified, the winner of the elections according to the Constitution is officially declared, ”Hawley said. “For me it’s the end of the line.”

Hawley also wouldn’t say whether he should have answered Baier differently and answered with the correct statement: that Biden would be the next president because there was never any chance Congress would overrule the result. He said his words would have been distorted no matter what.

“I think the liberal assault of lies to twist me, misinterpret me and attack me, no matter what I say or what I do, they’re going to tell the lies no matter what,” Hawley said in browsing the halls of the Capitol. “They are going to say you wanted to cancel the elections, they are going to say that you incited violence, which are all lies.

Hawley’s objection on January 6 was significant because Congress can reject electoral votes if at least one member of the House and a Senator oppose a state’s results, followed by majority votes in both houses. With large bipartisan majorities opposing Congressional efforts to reject any state’s election results, Hawley’s decision was doomed to failure.

But after becoming the first senator to announce he would oppose it, Hawley did give hope to pro-Trump activists and staunch supporters that the defeated GOP president could still hold on to power, a far-fetched idea the then president actively promoted.

Hawley insisted on Thursday that he was simply trying to spark a debate over Pennsylvania voting “irregularities” – not changing the outcome.

“My intentions were perfectly clear and what I hoped to accomplish, which is to draw attention to what happened in Pennsylvania and other irregularities and try to force congressional action, debate “Hawley said. “I opposed this state for this reason, and it was I who represented my constituents.”

In his Dec. 30 announcement that he would oppose the election results, Hawley did not say his goal was to call off the election. But he also didn’t mention that his efforts wouldn’t change Biden’s Electoral College victory.

This time, Trump mounted a months-long campaign to discredit the election, repeating lies and plots that the election was “rigged” and “stolen” while promoting the January 6 rally ahead of the joint meeting of Congress to keep track of the results – all of which led to the deadly riot on Capitol Hill that day.

When asked if his actions perpetuated the lie that the election was stolen, Hawley pushed back.

“I never used this rhetoric and was very clear as to why I objected and what I was doing,” Hawley said. “So absolutely not.”

Hawley, who is often seen as a potential 2024 presidential candidate, insists that “I’m not” a candidate in the next presidential election. And in the face of a Senate ethics complaint, Hawley says he has yet to hear from committee investigators (he filed a counter-complaint this week against Democrats he accused of abusing process by unfairly targeting it).

Hawley last week called Trump’s Jan. 6 words “inflammatory. I think they were irresponsible. I think they were wrong.” And after rioters sacked Capitol Hill, he condemned the violence and insurgents while arguing that the right way to mount a challenge was in the halls of Congress.

Yet despite calls from his colleagues to drop his objection and show unity after the murderous rampage, Hawley still objected to the Pennsylvania results, which fell overwhelmingly in the Senate, 7-92. Hawley also voted for Cruz’s challenge to the Arizona results, an effort that was rejected by a 6-93 vote.

“It’s not about messages,” Hawley said when asked if he should have changed his own rhetoric by Jan.6. “This is an attempt to silence political opponents. It is a brazen attempt to shut down democratic debate.”