Sen. Josh Hawley penned an essay for the New York Post Monday that earned him a spot on the cover of the nationally famous outlet. The headline said, “The muzzling of America.” The illustration showed a big piece of tape over a man’s mouth that reads “CANCELED.”
In his accompanying column, Hawley — who backed former president Donald Trump’s false claims of voter fraud and objected to states’ certification of President Joe Biden’s election win, even after a Capitol riot related to the certification left 5 dead — said that his “social credit score” has “taken a nosedive” lately. (Hawley’s forthcoming book was canceled by Simon & Schuster and Hallmark asked him to return its political contributions.)
Readers of his piece had a different argument, however: Many objected to his use of a nationally-distributed tabloid and its wide-reaching digital arm to claim that he’s been somehow silenced.
Writer Judd Legum wrote on Twitter alongside a screenshot of the cover, “If you want proof that America’s problem isn’t ‘cancel culture,’ Josh Hawley lied about election fraud, attempted to subvert the democratic process, helped incite a riot at the Capitol that left 5 people dead and he’s still a United States Senator.”
Steven Beschloss tweeted, “Josh Hawley whining in the N.Y. Post about cancel culture and being muzzled while roaming free and not expelled from the Senate–despite his key role in inciting the deadly insurrection–is next level gaslighting.”
“Yes, poor Josh Hawley is being censored, he says, from a cover article in the NY Post. It’s such a shame an United States Senator has no way to get his message to the American people,” quipped another reader.
Some pointed out that it could even be argued that in his efforts to overturn the voting results from some key states, Hawley himself was trying to muzzle voters while others fumed that Missouri residents are looking for information about the COVID-19 vaccine and other pressing issues while their senator is focused on his own image.