Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) this week provided a textbook example on how to handle the dishonest press when they smear Americans.
Hawley was doing an taped interview with KSDK News political editor Mark Maxwell when he confronted Maxwell over his nasty tweets to Elon Musk and his supporters.
Back on March 6, Maxwell sent these tweets as reported by Fox News Digital.
Maxwell claimed afterwards he was not sober when he sent out the tweets.
Hawley, though, was in no mood to let the so-called reporter slide and proceeded to thoroughly dissect him.
WATCH:
LOL: Senator @HawleyMO confronts left wing reporter who had an VERY public meltdown about @elonmusk.
"You also said that you didn't necessarily do any of this sober…I hope you do our interview sober!" pic.twitter.com/jOwyFbtAma
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 17, 2023
Relevant transcript:
Hawley: Hey Mark, I got to ask you, why all the hate for people who like free speech on Twitter? What’s going on with that?
Maxwell: I don’t understand your reference, what are you referring to?
Hawley: When you you called proponents, people who liked Elon Musk buying the site Twitter a bunch of bootlickers. This was on March 6th. I’m looking at it right here. Seems kind of vitriolic.
MAXWELL: Yeah, I suppose it was, it was a moment of frustration when the site went down and there were a lot of folks in my mentions who have quite, uh, the cultish adoration for him, (crosstalk) in my opinion.
Hawley: But bootlickers?
Maxwell: Yeah, going to bat and defending him at every turn even when he was banning journalists from the site for no apparent reason, uh, yeah, I felt like the industry of journalism, a part of the First Amendment has, uh, come under attack, at times, from Mr. Musk.
Hawley: You also said that you didn’t necessarily do any of this sober, “I didn’t do any of this sober” you said. I hope you do our interview sober..
Maxwell: I’ll try to, I’ll try to.
Hawley (laughing): I hope you’re sober now! What’s this part about not interrupting a worshipper during their prayers to Lord Elon? Quite a little rant.
Maxwell: I-I refer to it as satire… that’s protected under the First Amendment is it not?
Hawley: Oh, I don’t think you should go to jail for it, I’ll admit that (laughing). I think we call all agree on that!
But I don’t know, referring to people you don’t like as bootlickers. You don’t do opinion journalism, do you?
Maxwell: I wouldn’t call the (unintelligible) an act of journalism…
Hawley: Oh, but you’re a journalist on a public forum. You got picture of yourself at work on your Twitter profile. Isn’t that you at KSDK?
Maxwell: That is me!
Hawley: And it says Mark Maxwell as your handle. That’s you as a journalist, right?
Maxwell: Yeah.
Hawley: Well, when journalists or so-called journalist refer to people they don’t like as bootlickers on a public platform; when they attack folks and then say they don’t necessarily do stuff sober it does tend to get my attention…I just want to make sure you are sober and taking this seriously.
