'Some lesson in manhood': Josh Hawley ruthlessly shamed for Trump sellout

Josh Hawley literally wrote the book on manhood — and then proceeded to demonstrate he doesn't understand the first thing about it, the New York Times wrote Monday.

The Missouri Republican senator, who penned "Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs" after he infamously gave a fist salute to January 6 insurgents — before “scurrying” away in fear for his safety — just delivered another masterclass in political cowardice by folding on Trump's devastating domestic policy bill, Frank Bruni wrote.

Remember Hawley's heroic January 6th trilogy, Bruni asked. First, the clenched-fist salute encouraging the mob. Then, the panicked sprint through Capitol hallways when those same supporters came calling. Finally, the book deal capitalizing on "masculine virtues" he'd spectacularly failed to display.

Now Hawley's repeated his posturing. For months, he posed as the maverick willing to stand up to Trump, dramatically declaring in a Times op-ed that "slashing health insurance for the working poor" would be "morally wrong and politically suicidal."

He sounded like a warrior defending the barricades – until it came time to actually fight, Bruni wrote.

When Trump demanded his pound of flesh, Hawley crumbled faster than his January 6th courage. He voted for legislation that the Congressional Budget Office says will add over $3 trillion to federal debt while stripping healthcare from nearly 12 million Americans and cutting $1 trillion from Medicaid.

The bill makes a mockery of Republican fiscal responsibility claims, Bruni wrote. Even Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), announcing his retirement, called it a betrayal of Trump's promise not to touch Medicaid. Only three GOP senators – Tillis, Rand Paul, and Susan Collins – voted no.

Hawley's post-vote gymnastics were absurd, Bruni wrote. He simultaneously claimed Missouri's impact was lessened while admitting to NBC News this was "an unhappy episode" requiring "soul-searching." He vowed to do "everything I can" to prevent future healthcare cuts.

Senator Lisa Murkowski captured the reality, Bruni wrote. "We are all afraid... retaliation is real."

She voted yes while admitting she hated the bill, hoping the House would somehow fix the Senate's cowardice.

“The arc of Republican lawmakers in the Trump era bends toward complete submission,” he wrote. “That’s the posture in which Hawley and other Senate Republicans granted the president his financially reckless and needlessly cruel agenda.

“... If he’s willing to do “everything I can” so that people don’t lose health care, why didn’t he vote no? I guess that vow, like so many of his principles, comes with an escape hatch. Some lesson in manhood.”