“In his first interview with News 4 since January, Missouri Senator Josh Hawley reiterated his confidence in his decision to contest the results of the presidential election, while also decrying the actions of the Capitol rioters. ‘I certainly stand by what I did,’ Hawley said when asked about his public promise to challenge the election results. ‘What I said all along was that my goal was to raise the concerns of my constituents in the only forum that I had to do that as a part of this process.'”

“Hawley emphasized he has been consistent that he only intended to raise concerns over the voting systems, specifically in Pennsylvania, and that his singling out of January 6 was because that is the final day of the electoral process. He said he never intended to overthrow the election results. ‘It was never what I was aiming to do,’ he said. ‘I had no power to change the outcome even if I wanted to, and I didn’t.’ Leading up to the events of January 6, a large faction of the radical online community QAnon supported Hawley’s public promise to oppose the election results.”

“A widely-circulated photo of Hawley fist-pumping to Capitol protesters sparked questions about his support of the group that eventually stormed the Capitol, which included many QAnon members. However Wednesday, the senator unequivocally said he does not support QAnon and doesn’t give any credence to their conspiracy theories. ‘No. Zero. I still don’t know what they are, I don’t care to know. It seems like a bunch of whackos, extremists to me,’ he said” – KMOV.