All posts tagged "josh hawley"

MAGA senator lights up 'Zuckerberg and his friends' after hearing snub

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) called out Big Tech, including Meta owner Mark Zuckerberg and other social platform leaders who refuse to show up and discuss the companies' alleged use of AI chatbots exploiting children, pushing some to self-harm and suicide.

"Zuckerberg and his friends at Meta rejected my invitation to appear before the Senate and answer for the harms caused by their AI chatbots. So I gave the floor to the brave parents of chatbot victims. Thank you for revealing the ugly truth about profit-loving Big Tech," Hawley said during a Judiciary subcommittee hearing Tuesday.

Hawley launched a probe into Meta in August, seeking more information about its use of AI chatbots and children. He accused the companies of dodging responsibility.

"They're not at the table," he said. "They don't want any part of this conversation because they don't want any accountability. They want to keep on doing exactly what they have been doing which is designing products that engage users in every imaginable way, including the grooming of children, the sexualization of children, the exploitation of children — anything to lure the children in, to hold their attention, to get as much data from them as possible, to treat them as products to be strip mined and then to be discarded when they're finished with them."

"The testimony that you're going to hear is not pleasant, but it is the truth," he said. "And it's time that the country heard the truth about what these companies are doing, about what these chatbots are engaged in, about the harms that are being inflicted on our children and for one reason only, I can state it in one word: profit. Profit is what motivates these companies to do what they're doing. Don't be fooled, they know exactly what is going on."

Two whistleblowers from Meta testified last week "that Meta knows absolutely that its platforms harm children," Hawley said.

He argued that Meta was suppressing studies that show its platforms harm children in favor of its financial stake in the technology.

"What's the goal across all these platforms?... It is engagement that leads to profit," he said.

The FBI is investigating AI child sex abuse material online, Director Kash Patel said Tuesday in the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

Hawley said some children were led to suicide by the products made by these companies and their parents would testify to their experiences.

"And what are the companies doing about it? Nothing. Not a thing," he said.

Social media companies have mainly remained silent in the aftermath of the Charlie Kirk killing last week, the New York Times reports. The suspected shooter was accused by President Donald Trump, who has his own social media network, as "radicalized on the internet." Elon Musk, who owns X, is the only one to respond, posting divisive information in the wake of the assassination.

Zuckerberg & his friends at Meta rejected my invitation to appear before the Senate and answer for the harms caused by their AI chatbots.

So I gave the floor to the brave parents of chatbot victims.

Thank you for revealing the ugly truth about profit-loving Big Tech pic.twitter.com/zd0wTFBIsp
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) September 16, 2025

'Never seen that happen': GOP clashes over senator's rogue move on Trump bill

Senate Republicans are bashing Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) for going rogue as they hash out changes to the House version of President Donald Trump's megabill, Politico reported.

Paul serves as chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which should give him "jurisdiction" over the section of the bill dealing with border security, according to Politico's Hailey Fuchs. But Paul's defiance over increased spending has led committee members to shut him out of negotiations.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who has a long history of opposing Paul's more conservative approach to spending, is seeking to override Paul’s jurisdiction in the budget negotiations.

"Paul has made clear repeatedly he isn’t planning to vote for the party-line tax and spending bill...giving leadership few reasons to try and play nice," Fuchs wrote, adding that "the decision by senior Senate Republicans to undermine a committee chair in such a way marks a dramatic departure from standard Senate procedure."

This week, Paul drafted his own spending proposal, which is drastically different to Graham's. Senators viewed the move as "another break with precedent," Fuchs wrote.

She added that "few of Paul’s own members on the Homeland Security panel, if any, appeared supportive of the chair’s approach or willing to back him up against leadership’s attempts to undermine him. Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, said it was concerning that Paul would draft his own proposal 'without any consultation of the committee.'"

Hawley said he had “never seen that happen before," Fuchs wrote.

Paul's proposal "would allocate just $6.5 billion for immigration enforcement efforts at the border. His proposal also would free up $2.5 billion for Customs and Border Protection facilities and checkpoints instead of the House’s $5 billion offering," Politico reported.

Read the Politico article here.

'Who is funding?' MAGA senator vows to root out shadowy figures behind protests

President Donald Trump has claimed that the Los Angeles protesters are "paid insurrectionists," and MAGA Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) vowed Wednesday to find out who's behind the "funding."

Hawley posted to X, "Who is funding the LA riots? This violence isn’t spontaneous. As chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime & Terrorism, I’m launching an investigation to find out."

The Missouri senator also posted a letter addressed to Angelica Salas with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights.

"Credible reporting now suggests that your organization has provided logistical support and financial resources to individuals engaged in these disruptive actions," the letter read. "Let me be clear: bankrolling civil unrest is not protected speech. It is aiding and abetting criminal conduct."

Hawley did not tip his hand as to who produced the "credible reporting," but demanded that Salas "preserve" the group's records.

Salas appeared on CNN over the weekend, where she accused Trump of dehumanizing immigrants.

"I want the entire country and entire world to see that this president, President Donald Trump, is chaotic. He is cruel," Salas said. "He is unwilling to see us as human beings, and we all need to stand up against this kind of absolutely authoritarian attitude action....This president cannot see us as human beings."

On Bluesky, CHIRLA has posted "Know Your Rights Resources" for immigrants and advised the Los Angeles community, "If you see ICE in LA, don’t stay silent. Report it to the LA Rapid Response Network."

Another post featured an event photo with the caption, "CHIRLA along with our faith leaders gather in prayer as we hold each other in love and offer support to the families who have had loved ones ripped apart from them because of these vile ICE raids."

Salas has not yet publicly responded to Hawley's letter or assertions.

'Act of self-deception': Trump faces crisis as GOP rebels vow to dig in heels

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson need to back off — or so argue many Senate Republicans set on overhauling the House-passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which would turn much of Trump's campaign rhetoric into law.

After the measure squeaked out of the House by a single vote ahead of the Memorial Day recess, GOP leaders and the president are pressuring Senate Republicans to pass the bill, complete with tax and spending cuts, by July 4.

“Do you think the current timeline is unrealistic?” Raw Story asked Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) at the Capitol.

“It is,” said Johnson, one of only a few Senate Republicans Trump has called this week.

Unrealistic or not, Republican leaders are barreling ahead to meet their own self-imposed timeline of ASAP, even as an increasing number of senators call for a better bill.

‘He wants no Medicaid cuts’

A handful of key Republicans are worried less about timelines than about the substance of the bill, a measure even Trump’s former “first buddy” Elon Musk now calls a “disgusting abomination."

The White House has pushed back, arguing the measure “delivers the largest deficit reduction in nearly 30 years.” But that’s not what analysts say, and it isn’t good enough for fiscal conservatives like Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY). He says raising the debt ceiling by $5 trillion as part of the package makes it impossible for him to swallow White House talking points.

f“Well, have you ever seen the debt ceiling go up when we didn't reach the debt ceiling? So we will,” Paul told reporters this week. “It means we're going to borrow $5 trillion more, probably, presumably, next year. And so it means that they're calculating spending and the deficit accumulation goes on unabated.”

On Tuesday, President Trump lashed out.

“Rand votes NO on everything, but never has any practical or constructive ideas,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “His ideas are actually crazy (losers!). The people of Kentucky can’t stand him. This is a BIG GROWTH BILL!”

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the House measure will add more than $2 trillion to budget deficits, while changes to Medicaid would result in millions losing health coverage.

Paul says that if the GOP is serious about getting federal spending under control, it must overhaul programs like Medicare and Social Security.

“If you take the entitlements off the table, which they’ve largely done, you cannot change the direction, cannot change the vast accumulation of debt,” Paul said.

Paul is far from alone. A growing number of Republicans are demanding steeper spending cuts.

Johnson, the Wisconsin senator, has been walking around the Capitol, using his phone to show reporters and fellow Republicans spending charts, arguing the House measure fails to bring federal spending back to pre-pandemic levels.

“I understand the challenges everybody faces, but we have to bend the deficit curve down,” Johnson told Raw Story, showing a chart. “We have to do that.”

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) shows reporters spending charts. Photo: Matt Laslo.

While Paul wants the debt limit increase stripped out of the bill, Johnson advocates making it smaller, so Congress is forced to cut spending next year.

“Right now I'm hoping to convince President Trump that it's in his best interest — he wants to bring the deficit curve down as well — to just do a debt ceiling for a year to put pressure on the process, force us to come back and do another reconciliation and get more serious about all this stuff,” Johnson said. “If I can accomplish that, I think that would be pretty good.”

“Do you think there's political will in the GOP conference to cut the deficit?" Raw Story asked.

“You have to create it,” Johnson said.

Creating political will is hard, especially in this divided Washington.

The GOP is itself divided. Some Republicans are fighting House-passed Medicaid cuts.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), no one’s idea of a moderate, has spoken to Trump and says the president sided with him and other vocal opponents of cutting Medicaid.

“He reiterated that he wants no Medicaid benefit cuts,” Hawley told reporters. “I agree with him 100 percent."

Hawley is joined by the few remaining GOP centrists, including Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Susan Collins (R-ME), in vowing to oppose the Big Beautiful Bill if Medicaid cuts stay in.

‘Deep uncertainty’

Such GOP infighting is bolstering Democrats who cannot derail the bill without Republican assistance. Many highlight the hypocrisy enshrined in the Republican plan.

“It’s one of the most destructive pieces of legislation in the history of the USA,” Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) told Raw Story. “It’s a massive act of self-deception.

“Everything that traditionally Republicans stood for. Fiscal responsibility? Gone. Investment in the future? Gone. Rule of law? Gone. This will spread the pain universally. No one's spared.”

Democrats claim that message is resonating in battleground states.

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) says his voters resent even the name of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

“What I hear from my constituents does not include the word ‘beautiful,’” Kelly told Raw Story. “Nobody in Arizona has used that word with this legislation.”

Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) just attended the Detroit Chamber of Commerce’s annual bipartisan conference on Mackinac Island.

“It was pretty much the only talk of the island,” Slotkin told Raw Story. ”All our business leaders, all our unions, energy companies, environmental folks, every elected official — Democratic, Republican.”

“What's the mood?” Raw Story pressed.

“Deep uncertainty, especially in manufacturing,” Slotkin said.

‘I’m a maybe’

With Republican senators demanding sweeping changes to the multi-trillion-dollar package, even some of Trump’s closest allies are still on the fence.

“I’m a maybe right now,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) told Raw Story. “Every day something will change. If people are going out there saying, ‘I'm for it’ or ‘I'm against it’, why would you do that? Too early.”

Speaker Johnson has urged Senate Republicans not to overhaul the measure, because with every tweak he risks losing support in his own divided conference.

To make it out of the Senate, the bill needs backing from 50 Senate Republicans, given Vice President JD Vance would break a tie. As of now, the votes aren’t there. Supporters say that’s to be expected.

“It's called negotiations. We're just negotiating,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) told Raw Story. “Everybody wants their fingerprints on it, but, at the end of the day, you’ve got to get 51 on the bill. That's what we're going to do.”

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Trump nominee wanted voting law with 'ugly history' of barring Blacks from polls

A Donald Trump nominee for a lifetime federal judgeship to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern and Western Districts of Missouri has a history of promoting a policy designed to prevent Black people from voting, HuffPost revealed.

Attorney Josh Divine has served since 2023 as Missouri’s Solicitor General and Director of Special Litigation. "He previously clerked for conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and served as chief counsel to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO)," according to the report.

As a student at the University of Northern Colorado in 2010, Divine wrote an opinion piece arguing that citizens "should be required to take literacy tests in order to vote — despite such tests being outlawed by the Voting Rights Act of 1965 because they were routinely used to keep Black people from voting," the report said.

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“People who aren’t informed about issues or platforms — especially when it is so easy to become informed these days — have no business voting, which is why I propose state-administered literacy tests,” Divine wrote for the college's paper, The Mirror.

HuffPost reporter Jennifer Bendery wrote, "Literacy tests in elections have a long and ugly history in the U.S. They were used from the late 1800s to the mid-1960s to prevent voting by immigrants and lower-income people, who were considered not educated enough to vote. In particular, in the 1960s, Southern states forced Black residents to explain complicated constitutional provisions in order to vote.

The landmark Voting Rights Act ultimately banned literacy tests, along with poll taxes, and the result was a surge in registered Black voters."

Bendery added, "It’s not clear whether Divine, who is now in his mid-30s, still thinks it would be a good idea to let states bring back literacy tests as a requirement for voting."

The White House did not respond to request for comment, according to the article.

Read the HuffPost article here.

House Republican claps back at MAGA senator's rebuke: 'We're not aligned'

Rep. Mark Alford (R-MO) may be from the same party and the same state as Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), but the two are worlds apart when it comes to how Medicaid should be represented in the House spending bill.

Hawley told CNN's Manu Raju earlier Wednesday that he would not sign on to the House bill as it stands now because he believes cutting Medicaid benefits is akin to "taxing the poor to give to the rich, and I'm totally opposed to that," Hawley said.

Alford, who favors cuts to Medicaid, appeared Wednesday afternoon with Boris Sanchez.

"I have nothing but the utmost respect for Sen. Josh Hawley," Alford began. "We just dropped his bill in the House today, the PELOSI Act, which bans members of Congress from trading individual stocks. We're aligned on that; we're not aligned on the terminology."

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"Let's put it that way," Alford continued. "For Medicaid, he calls them cuts; I call them savings. Look, we are kicking 1.4 million illegal aliens off of this program, 1.6 million Americans are now enrolled in Medicaid in at least two different states. We are finding the savings in these programs to come up with $900 billion — it was going to be 880 — they come up with 900 billion over 10 years, savings so that we can properly fund the program for people who are truly in need of these services."

Alford said he knows people in the "Show-Me State" are concerned about the proposed cuts.

"But it is a show-me state, and we're going to ask people to 'show me:' show me why you should be using taxpayer money for Medicaid that's funneled from the federal government down to the state level. Look, we are not, we are not empty of compassion — that is not what it's about. I am compassionate about turning this country around."

Alford emphasized that the House has to get the bill reconciliation passed, "or it's going to be the largest tax increase in U.S. history. And, yes, to pay for that, we're going to find savings in these programs."

Watch the clip below via CNN.

'Infuriates me': MAGA senators turn on GOP over 'life and death' plan

Two MAGA Republicans in the Senate are speaking out against potential changes to Medicaid being eyed by the House, as Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) vowed to pass President Donald Trump's spending bill by the new Fourth of July deadline.

Top officials announced the new deadline on Monday after Johnson had originally set it for Memorial Day.

Sens. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) both warned the House to lay off Medicaid, particularly two proposals: one that would "cut the federal government’s share of the costs in states that have expanded Medicaid," and the other that would "cap Medicaid expansion spending."

Both ideas amounted to “cutting benefits," Moreno told Semafor, adding, "We don’t need to cut benefits. And it actually really infuriates me to hear people here talking about that, because it stresses people out. This is life and death for them."

According to Semafor, the current framework for the GOP’s tax cut bill "directs the House committee in charge of Medicaid to find $880 billion in savings over 10 years."

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Even still, the report described a "growing consensus" among GOP lawmakers about paring back their party’s pursuit of Medicaid savings.

More than a dozen Republican senators could fight against Medicaid cuts, Semafor reported.

"There’s not 50 votes for any kind of cuts in benefits. That’s just a fact," Moreno said.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed he would not cut benefits, and he's told lawmakers to look elsewhere if they have to make cuts to his "Big, Beautiful Bill."

As it currently stands, the spending bill will "raise the debt ceiling, extend 2017 tax cuts, provide additional tax cuts, supply hundreds of billions of dollars in border and defense funds and slash federal spending."

"Finding more than $1 trillion worth of spending cuts to help pay for the bill is sure to be the biggest headache, with moderates in both chambers insisting that Medicaid be preserved," Axios reported.

Read the Semafor article here.

Josh Hawley's mentor endorses independent opponent in Senate race

Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, recently saw his former GOP mentor endorse his opponent in the race for his Senate seat, according to reports.

John Danforth, a retired GOP senator and Hawley's former mentor, reportedly said after Jan. 6 that his support of Hawley was the "worst mistake" of his life. Now, he's backing Independent U.S. Senate candidate Jared Young, according to St. Louis Post-Dispatch's report on Thursday.

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"Young is a moderate conservative and independent candidate running under the Better Party for the Senate seat representing Missouri," according to the report. "Danforth, in his written endorsement, said Young 'embraces the ideas that have always defined the Republican Party and have been universally accepted across its membership.'"

This isn't the first time Danforth has made a similar move. In 2022, Danforth was urging Missourians to vote for attorney John Wood, who left his role as a Jan. 6 select committee investigator to return home and run for U.S. Senate as an independent. In that case, Danforth gave a whopping $5 million donation to the challenger.

“I am honored by Senator Danforth’s endorsement,” Young said, according to the report. “We share the belief there are real solutions to complex problems if we can reject the angry, divisive tactics that have overtaken American politics.”

According to St. Louis Post-Dispatch's new report, "Hawley also faces Democratic nominee Lucas Kunce, Libertarian W.C. Young and Socialist Equality Party candidate Doris Canady on Nov. 5."

You can read the full article right here.

Josh Hawley's opponent: 'I don’t know why he can’t be normal' and agree to a debate

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) faces his first election after videos were released of him running from Jan. 6 rioters he claimed to support.

His Democratic opponent, ex-Marine Lucas Kunce, has taken the fight to Hawley, who has, thus far, refused to debate, even if hosted by a conservative outlet like Fox News.

Hawley has long supported "right to work" laws, which the AFL-CIO explains "makes it harder for working people to form unions and collectively bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions."

Unionization has made a comeback, particularly with young voters, and Hawley has tried to flip-flop on the matter, saying he no longer supports laws that block unions from requiring employees to pay dues.

“I don’t think it’s fair to ask union organizers to have to organize for people who are not paying union dues,” Hawley said.

“He was a right-to-work candidate. He doesn’t believe in labor,” Kunce said. “[Hawley] tried to remake himself in an election year because he knows that taking away our rights is not something that people want.”

Speaking to Kunce on Friday, MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace asked why there's a debate about debating.

"We've agreed to the five televised debates. He's sort of coming up with different stunts. Like, let's have a debate on the state fairgrounds. The state fairgrounds asked us not to do that, and said, 'No, you're not welcome here.' Then he wanted one of his endorsing organizations to host one, which violates federal election laws. Couldn't do that. Like, I don't know why the guy can't be normal and agree to do the five televised debates as offered. I offered one on Fox News. He seems to be interested. It should be a safer space for him."

The two also talked about Hawley's infamous race from Jan. 6 rioters and the mockery that has followed.

"I was a marine for 13 years," said Kunce. "Deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. You'd get in a lot of trouble if you ran away from the enemy back in the day."

See the discussion below or at the link here.

- YouTubeyoutu.be