Bob Woodward’s book reveals damning details about Josh Hawley’s role in Trump’s attempted coup: Missouri newspaper

Sen. Josh Hawley's hometown newspaper bashed the Missouri Republican for encouraging and supporting an attempted coup to keep Donald Trump in the White House.

The Kansas City Star editorial board lists all the Trump administration officials and others who pushed back against baseless claims of election fraud, as described in Bob Woodward and Robert Costa's book, "Peril," but noted that Hawley continued to side with the defeated president.

"You know who never caved to reality, or ever tried to protect the republic instead of his Republican self?" the board writes. "Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, that's who. Yes, we knew that, but 'Peril' reminds any who might have forgotten that in putting his ambition ahead of all else, Hawley was a standout both before and during the attempted coup."

The book's authors say as much.

"'The risk became real,' the book says, 'when Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, a Yale-law educated freshman and former Supreme Court law clerk for Chief Justice John Roberts, announced on Dec. 30 that he would object to the Electoral College certification on Jan. 6, becoming the first senator to do so,'" the board writes

Hawley stood by himself in the hours after Trump supporters violently stormed the U.S. Capitol intending to stop or delay the certification of Joe Biden's election win, as both the Star reported at the time and "Peril" showed months later, and the newspaper noted with disdain that the senator told colleagues Roy Blunt and Ted Cruz that he would side with the insurrectionists when the floor vote came.

"Hawley played a big role in the Big Lie," the board writes. "And since so many Missourians love him for it, he may be the rare national Republican who hopes his constituents will read this book, and see how willing he was to distinguish himself."