As lawmakers were evacuated during the Jan. 6 insurrection, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) screamed, “You have caused this!” at Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), according to a Washington Post profile of Hawley. The Post chronicled Hawley’s rise, with former allies expressing shock at his transformation from potential conservative reformer to election fraud-pushing demagogue. Ex-Missouri Sen. John Danforth said he felt “responsible for Josh Hawley being in the Senate” and encouraging Hawley to run for office was the “greatest mistake” of his life. An undergrad advisor at Stanford said he was “deeply disturbed” by his former student’s role in the insurrection. The Post’s profile described Hawley—who raised a supportive fist to Jan. 6 protesters in a now infamous photo—as the “face of a movement built on the lie that the 2020 election was fraudulent.”
