Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is trying to turn mockery of him into a chance to fundraise.
The image of Hawley fist-pumping protesters on Jan. 6, shortly before the storming of the U.S. Capitol, has become one of the most enduring images of the day.
On Thursday night, the House committee investigating the riot shared footage of the Missouri senator apparently running to seek shelter from the rioters.
The video led social media users to mock him.
So how did the Missouri senator respond? By trying to fundraise.
In a tweet Thursday morning, Hawley shared a kissing emoji and a link where people can buy a mug with a graphic of him raising his fist.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) shared a screenshot of the video and tweeted, “Worth remembering: Josh Hawley was the first senator to say he would object to the electoral college, causing a cascade of Ted Cruz-es.”
“There would not have been as much oxygen to trumps coup plan without Fistpump McRunpants,” he added.
Kinzinger referred to the fact that Hawley was the first senator to announce that he would object to certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) tweeted, “Remember: Even after running for his life, Sen. Hawley chose to fundraise off his encouraging and fist-pumping the violent mob, and even sold merchandise of himself doing so from then through *this year* – even after Politico, who later acquired the image, sent a cease and desist.”
Check out some of the other reactions below:
The image of you raising your fist in solidarity with a crowd that was seeking to overturn the results of an election and invalidate the votes of millions of Americans should be a shameful image.
And that’s especially true, knowing that rioters later stormed the Capitol to facilitate that and seven people died in connection with the violence.