Republican Josh Hawley fled January 6 rioters – and Twitter ran with it

The House January 6 committee on Thursday played Capitol security footage which showed the Missouri Republican senator Josh Hawley, who famously raised a fist to protesters outside, running for his safety once those protesters breached the building. 

It prompted a flurry of online memes ridiculing Hawley fleeing from the very people he had earlier encouraged.

Presenting the committee’s case, the Virginia Democrat Elaine Luria showed pictures of House members and senators leaving their chambers. She said: “Senator Josh Hawley also had to flee.

“Earlier that afternoon before the joint session [of Congress] started, he walked along the east front of the Capitol.

“As you can see in this photo, he raised his fist in solidarity with protesters already amassing at the security gates.”

The committee showed the famous image of the senator raising his fist, which was taken by a photographer for E&E News, subsequently bought by Politico.

“Later that day, Senator Hawley fled after those protesters he helped to rile up stormed the Capitol. See for yourself.”

The committee then played video of Hawley trotting across a corridor and hurrying down a staircase next to an escalator.

Online, some took a similarly lighthearted view, one user scoring the footage of Hawley running to a soundtracks including Stayin’ Alive by the BeeGees, Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen and the Benny Hill theme.