Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz pressured to resign for ‘normalizing’ attack on Capitol

Sen. Patty Murray is calling on Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ted Cruz of Texas to resign for the role they played in inciting the violence and mayhem at the Capitol Building this week that left five people dead.

Mr. Hawley and Mr. Cruz, both Republicans, were leading voices in the push to object to the Electoral College results. Their objection was doomed to fail and widely viewed as a way for the two possible 2024 presidential contenders to score political points with Trump supporters that believe the election was stolen.

Mrs. Murray, the third-ranking Democrat in the Senate said the job of Congress is “to keep this country a democracy where voices win, not brute force.”

“Any Senator who stands up and supports the power of force over the power of democracy has broken their oath of office,” she said. “Senators Hawley and Cruz should resign.”

Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware also has called on Mr. Hawley and Mr. Cruz to step down.

Mr. Cruz and Mr. Hawley also have faced blowback from Republicans.

Sen. Ben Sasse said in an interview with NPR that Mr. Hawley’s decision to object to the Electoral College votes “was really dumbass.”

“This was a stunt,” the Nebraska Republican said. “It was a terrible, terrible idea.”

Mrs. Murray said there can be “no normalizing or looking away” from attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob angry over the results of the election cannot be

“The violent mob that attacked the Capitol was made up of people who don’t accept democracy, and want to take this country by use of force,” she said. “This is not how we keep our people and our country free.”