Are Republicans finally learning to manage the press? Although the answer is likely not, there are some Republicans who have learned how to handle the press, including Sen. Josh Hawley.
In a recent interview with St. Louis affiliate KSDK, Hawley brought the receipts and confronted a reporter named Mark Maxwell over his past condemnation of Elon Musk. The result was pretty funny, with Maxwell deciding that the best explanation to offer was that he was drunk-tweeting.
Your vaunted press corps, ladies and gentlemen.
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
Hawley: Why is there so much hatred for people who enjoy free speech on Twitter?
Maxwell: I don’t get your reference. What are you referring to?
Hawley: When you said, uh, you called proponents, people who liked Elon Musk buying the site Twitter a bunch of “book lickers.” This was on March 6th. I’m looking at it right here. Seems kind of vitriolic.
Maxwell: Yes, I think it was. It was a momentary frustration when the site crashed. There were many people in my mentions that have quite the cultish admiration for him.
Yes, going to bat for him and defend his position at every turn, even when he was banning journalists off the site without apparent reason.
We’ll stop there because Maxwell’s answers are absurd in many places. One, Twitter crashed several times during the old regime. It is absurd to suggest that Musk’s decision to liquidate the over-extended company caused the early March downtime. Is this really the case? Was he so obsessed with Twitter that he couldn’t stop using it for a few minutes?
His claims that Musk banned “journalists” because of “no apparent reasons” are false. Aaron Rupar is an example of a journalist. He is a leftwing hack who posts clips out-of-context in Media Matters’ mold. After linking to a site that doxxed Musk’s private plane, he was banned from the TOS. Rupar and others were unbanned in a matter of days.
This is a far cry from the previous Twitter regime’s crackdown on dissenting views. Maxwell, did Maxwell ever complain? Maxwell didn’t complain about that, at least, not that I can tell. These “journalists”, however, only care about freedom of speech when left-wing journalists don’t have to follow basic rules. They clap like seals when it comes to actual censorship.
Hawley: You also stated that you weren’t necessarily sober. “I didn’t do any of these sober,” you said. I hope you do our interview sober. I hope you’re sober now.
Maxwell was caught off guard by Hawley’s other examples. The reporter continued to laugh and walk back his statements, but it was too late. This is a great clip.
I would like to see other Republicans take the Missouri senator’s lead on how to handle the media. Too many Republicans believe they can win these partisans to their side. This is unlikely to happen and anyone who goes into interviews without doing their research will be embarrassed. Hawley is an expert at playing the game.
