MSNBC host Joe Scarborough roasted Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley during Friday’s broadcast of “Morning Joe.”
Scarborough laid into Hawley over his criticism of Simon & Schuster after the publisher canceled his planned book deal.
Simon & Schuster released a statement Thursday announcing it is cancelling the publication of Hawley’s book following “his role in what became a dangerous threat to our democracy and freedom.” Hawley responded with his own statement saying, “Let me be clear, this is not just a contract dispute. It’s a direct assault on the First Amendment.”
My statement on the woke mob at @simonschuster pic.twitter.com/pDxtZvz5J0
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) January 7, 2021
“That blood is not only on Donald Trump’s hands,” Scarborough said, referencing the deaths of multiple people in and around the Capitol on Wednesday, “it’s also on the hands of Josh Hawley.” (RELATED: Police Gather In Washington, D.C., To Honor Fallen Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick)
Scarborough continued by saying that Hawley started the “legislative side of this” and “refused to back down” once the insurrection began. Hawley had recently been one of the most outspoken members of Congress who planned to object to the certification of the Electoral College votes.
He then criticized the fact that Hawley went after the publisher at all, explaining that if you are a private “profit-making center” then “you can do what the hell you want.”
“He just may well be the dumbest man in America with a degree from Stanford and Yale Law School,” Scarborough said. “He keeps confusing the actions of private industry, of private enterprises with the federal government. He keeps confusing the fact that if you are a profit-making center, you can do what the hell you want to do as far as publishing.”