Josh Hawley Stayed True To His Tainted Brand By Casting The Senate’s Only ‘No’ Vote Against An Anti-Asian Hate Crimes Bill, And No One Is Surprised

Insurrection cheerleader Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) made headlines earlier this month as one of six Senators (including Tom Cotton, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Rand Paul, Roger Marshall, and Tommy Tuberville) who initially opposed the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act. Fast forward to Thursday, and Hawley turned out to be the only one of the bunch who actually voted against the bill, which is aimed toward halting the year(-plus)-long wave of violence against Asian-Americans that correlates to when former President Trump recklessly began referring to COVID-19 as the “China Virus” and “Kung-Flu.”

Even Marco Rubio, who is staunchly anti-China when it comes to policy, tried to distance himself from the issue following the recent Atlanta Spa Shootings while tweeting: “The increase in violence against Asian-Americans is alarming, vile & un-American.” This week’s vote arrives after the bill was amended to replace language about “COVID-19 hate crimes” with “hate crimes” [with direct reference to the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community]. Yet Hawley remained the lone holdout in a vote that ended 94-1 with nearly unanimous bipartisan endorsement.

Via Axios, here are some bill specifics:

The Senate voted 94-1 on Thursday to pass legislation that aims to improve anti-Asian hate crime tracking and identification… The bill will train law enforcement to better identify anti-Asian racism and appoint an official in the Justice Department to review and expedite COVID-19-related hate crime reports, among other measures.

Given Hawley’s infamous raised-fist salute to the MAGA insurrectionists, and the fact that he’s so incenidary that General Russell Honore called him a “little piece of sh*t,” and Hallmark took a stand against him, no one is really too surprised that, if there was a lone holdout to this bill, it had to be Josh Hawley.

The responses flew in fast with “Josh Hawley, on-brand. (And that brand is ‘a**hole’)” rising to the top of the pile, and so much more.

https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/1385296519071416331

https://twitter.com/labyrinthweaver/status/1385306087717412869

(Via Axios & The Recount)