Expulsion From Congress For Josh Hawley Demanded By Government Watchdog

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The government watchdog group known as Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is pushing for the expulsion from Congress of Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) — both of whom, of course, were closely aligned with the movement that culminated, in part, in the attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters last January. Cruz and Hawley promoted the false claim that there was a reason to be concerned about the integrity of the 2020 presidential election outcome, and not just that, but they also proudly participated in the effort within Congress to block the certification of Biden’s win. Their push to keep Biden from office helped fuel the violence. CREW commented as follows:

‘Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley should not be in the Senate. They chose Trump and the Big Lie over democracy. It’s not too late to expel them to protect our democracy.’

Unfortunately, even though it’s worth noting that a similar push has been made against insurrection-aligned members of the House, expelling a member of either chamber of Congress requires the agreement of two-thirds of that chamber. With the current distribution of Republicans across the two chambers — and considering the expressed intention of most of those Republicans to closely stick to Trump, there’s not an evident path to getting insurrection-tied members of Congress expelled. That leaves these things up to the voters. Although Hawley’s state heavily leans towards the Republicans, Cruz won his last election by a little over 2 and a half percent, so there’s what would appear to be room to end his time in power.

In the House, Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) has helped lead the push to enact accountability for the events of January 6 and expel members with ties to what happened. Bush insisted that members of Congress “must hold these Republicans accountable for their role in this insurrection at our nation’s Capitol as part of a racist attempt to overturn the election results.” In the meantime, they’re still at it — certain Republican members of Congress have adamantly refused to distance themselves from Trump, sticking by him even through the thicket of his false claims about the integrity of the last election. Combining those lies with Trump’s repeated attempts to excuse what happened at the Capitol on January 6 could spark something similar happening again.