In a new book, the Republican senator Josh Hawley of Missouri attacks what he calls “woke capitalism” and claims to be a victim of cancel culture over his actions around the Capitol attack of 6 January.
Hawley, 41, is a leading figure on the far right of the Republican party, jostling to inherit Donald Trump’s populist crown and with it the presidential nomination in 2024.
The Tyranny of Big Tech will be published next week. The Guardian obtained a copy.
In his introduction, Hawley seeks to defend his actions surrounding what he calls the “grisly riot” at the US Capitol which was stormed by a pro-Trump mob in scenes of violence that shocked the world and cost five lives.
But he does not mention his most controversial act: raising a fist in solidarity with Trump supporters told by the then president to march on the building and “fight like hell” in service of his lie that his defeat by Joe Biden was the result of electoral fraud.
Hawley’s gesture became a worldwide symbol of a riot in which the mob roamed the halls Congress, in some cases looking for lawmakers to kidnap or kill. More than 400 people have been charged.
Later on 6 January, in a process delayed by the riot and with the world in shock, Republicans in the House and Senate went through with formal objections to results in Arizona and Pennsylvania, states which Biden won.
Hawley objected to the Pennsylvania result. In Arizona, Republicans are proceeding with a hugely controversial audit which Trump has backed. Had the two states been overturned, Biden would still be president.
Publisher Simon & Schuster dropped Hawley’s book, only for it to be swiftly picked up by Regnery, a conservative imprint for which Simon & Schuster handles distribution.
That notwithstanding, Hawley writes: “This is the book the corporate monopolies did not want you to read.”
He also claims “not [to have] encourag[ed] the riot, as the publisher certainly knew” and says he “fiercely condemned the violence and the thugs who perpetrated it”.
He says his “sin” was to formally object to election results in one state, “precisely as permitted by law” and as Democrats had done before.
Hawley writes that he was “branded a ‘seditionist’ and worse. But like many others attacked by the corporations and the left, my real crime was to have challenged the reign of the woke capitalists.”
Google and Facebook are among Hawley’s main targets, in part for their exploitation of user data. He does not discuss his own links with donor Peter Thiel, founder of the tech firm Palantir, which became embroiled in the Cambridge Analytica data scandal.
Hawley has introduced the “Bust Up Big Tech Act” and found some common ground with Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, a Democrat seeking antitrust reform. But the Republican remains a leading troll for liberal discontent. Last week, his was the sole vote against an anti-Asian hate crimes bill which 94 senators backed.
On Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported that more than 200 staff members at Simon & Schuster had signed and delivered a petition demanding the company cease all dealings with people connected to the Trump administration.
The petition, reportedly supported by “several thousand outside supporters, including well-known Black writers”, followed the company’s rejection last week of a staff demand it not publish two books by former vice-president Mike Pence.