To open her show on Friday evening, CNN’s Erin Burnett laid out a damning indictment of Sen. Josh Hawley’s (R-MO) excuses and unapologetic defenses of his role in spreading the “big lie” of 2020 election fraud conspiracies and the subsequent pro-Trump Capitol insurrection.

The CNN host singled out Hawley as a stalwart supporter of the former president, but also as a possible accomplice in potential efforts by Congress to sanction them both.

“There are very loud voices in the Republican Party who are still standing firmly behind the former president. Josh Hawley, first and foremost,” Burnett said, showing the now-infamous image of the the Missouri Republican raising his fist in the air in solidarity with the MAGA crowd, many of whom would soon be violently assaulting the Capitol.

She then played an exchange between CNN Congressional reporter Manu Raju and Hawley from earlier on Friday.

“Do you reject objecting given what we saw on January 6th?” he asked.

“No. I was representing my constituents. I did what I said I was going to do. I gave voice to my constituents,” Hawley insisted.

“OK, this has to be exposed for what it is, which is complete bunk,” Burnett declared in response to Hawley’s defense. “First of all, he said he was ‘giving voice to his constituents.’ One of his constituents and a long-time mentor, a former Republican senator, John Danforth of Missouri said backing Hawley was the ‘worst decision I made in my life.’ An editorial in the Kansas City Star reads ‘Assault on Democracy: Senator Josh Hawley has blood on his hands in Capitol coup attempt.’ And to the extent that his constituents did want him to support a violent mob and support overturning the results of the election, they only thought that and that that was right because of what Trump and Hawley told them.”

She then noted Hawley was still claiming fraud in late December, weeks after Trump’s own Attorney General, Bill Barr, had confirmed there was no evidence of widespread fraud that could change Joe Biden’s victory. And she then rolled video of Capitol rioters approvingly citing Hawley and fellow Republican Sen. Ted Cruz (TX) while ransacking Cruz’s own office.

“When rioters stormed the Capitol, all of those things that Hawley said, they mattered. They had listened.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.

The post 'Complete Bunk': CNN's Erin Burnett Offers Brutal Takedown of Sen. Josh Hawley's Election Fraud Conspiracy Mongering first appeared on Mediaite.

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