Hawley defends election objection, claims Dems trying to 'grab power' with 'lie about our motivations'

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Sen. Josh Hawley still under fire for objecting to Pennsylvania electors

Missouri Republican speaks out on 'Life, Liberty & Levin'

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., objected to the slate of electors from Pennsylvania earlier this month "in order to have a debate about election integrity," he told Fox News' "Life, Liberty & Levin" in an interview airing Sunday. 

"I think we need election reforms. I think we need to ban ballot harvesting. I think we need to take a hard look at how the mail in balloting was administered in many of these states, including Pennsylvania, which did not follow their own law," Hawley told host Mark Levin.

"What the liberals have said is, 'Because you did that, you effectively incited violence [Jan. 6],'" Hawley added. "That's a lie. They know it's a lie. They said, 'He wanted to overturn the election.' That's a lie. They know that it's a lie. They said that, you know, 'It's equivalent to a violent insurrection, the objection you raised.' That's a lie. They know that it's a lie."

Earlier in the segment, Levin compared the backlash faced by Hawley to the apparent free pass given to members of the House Democratic "Squad" of lawmakers. 

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"AOC and [Rashida] Tlaib and [Ayanna] Pressley and others on the Democrat side in the House, it appears they can say just about anything they want to say to about anybody," the host said. "They can make these outrageous allegations about this country. They can make outrageous allegations about their colleagues, honestly. They can make outrageous allegations about the state of Israel for which there's no pushback, for which their colleagues don't seek any kind of recrimination whatsoever."

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The host added that Hawley had sought to raise "legitimate" issues with his objection on Jan. 6, "unlike Russia collusion and so forth."

"I think what we're seeing now is an attempt by the left to lie about our motivations, to lie about our actions in order to grab power," Hawley responded. "They want to silence dissent. They want to silence me. And I tell you right now, I am not going to back down before a liberal mob.