Hawley Takes Another Hit

Hotel cancels fundraiser planned for Florida
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 17, 2021 10:30 AM CST
Hawley Takes Another Hit
About 300 demonstrators against Sen. Josh Hawley gather at the historic Old Courthouse in downtown St. Louis earlier this month.   (Christian Gooden/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP)

After losing a book deal and political contributions, Sen. Josh Hawley has now had the rug pulled out from a fundraiser over his support for overturning the results of the presidential election. Loews Hotels said Saturday that it has canceled the event planned for next month at its Portofino Bay Hotel at Universal Orlando, Forbes reports. The company tweeted that it was "horrified and opposed to the events at the Capitol." The Missouri Republican stuck to his position when Congress returned to work after the Jan. 6 attack, even as other GOP members dropped their opposition to certifying President-elect Joe Biden's victory. Loews cited the safety of employees and guests in adding that it was canceling the fundraiser "in light of those events."

"If these corporations don't want conservatives to speak, they should just be honest about it," Hawley said in an email to Forbes. "But to equate leading a debate on the floor of the Senate with inciting violence is a lie, and it's dangerous." A flier said the event was to cost families $5,000, couples $3,000, and individuals $1,000, per the Orlando Sentinel. "I think it's totally inappropriate," said a Florida lawyer who posted the flier online earlier Saturday. "You bring your family down and go to Universal in the middle of a pandemic, after [he's] incited an insurrection?" Not only have corporate political donations dried up since the attack, one company's PAC wants its money back from Hawley. "I will not be deterred from representing my constituents and I will not bow to left wing corporate pressure," Hawley's statement said. (More Josh Hawley stories.)

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