Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) got into a tense exchange with a local reporter this week that ended with the journalist offering to take a blood alcohol test.
Hawley was scheduled to do an interview with St. Louis KSDK News political editor Mark Maxwell, but before the reporter could ask his first question Hawley confronted him over some of his tweets criticizing Twitter CEO Elon Musk and his supporters.
“Why all the hate for people who like free speech on Twitter? What’s going on with that?” Hawley asked, according to a clip obtained by Fox News Digital.
Maxwell told Hawley he wasn’t sure what he was referring to, prompting the senator to point to a March 6 tweet from the reporter calling Musk’s supporters “bootlickers.”
“Does anyone still think Elon buying this site and firing all the experts was a good idea? It’s been a while since I’ve seen any of his bootlickers brag on how efficient the site is now that Sir Galaxy Brain is in charge,” the tweet read.
Maxwell agreed with Hawley’s assessment that the tweet was “kinda vitriolic,” but he also defended his use of the word ‘bootlicker.’
“That was a moment of frustration when the site went down and there were a lot of folks in my mentions who had quite a cultish adoration of him,” Maxwell said. “Going to bat for him, defending him at every turn even when he was banning journalists from the site for no apparent reason. Yeah, I felt like the industry and journalism, a part of the First Amendment, has come under specific attack at times from Mr. Musk.”
Hawley also highlighted Maxwell’s reply to a Twitter user later that day who asked if he was sober.
“I never said I was sober,” Maxwell tweeted at the time.
“I hope you do our interview sober!” Hawley said. “I hope you’re sober now!”
After going back and forth over another one of Maxwell’s tweets about Musk’s supporters praying to “Lord Elon,” Hawley once again questioned Maxwell’s sobriety.
“When journalists or so-called journalists refer to people they don’t like as ‘bootlickers’ on a public platform, when they attack folks and then say they don’t necessarily do stuff sober, it does tend to get my attention,” Hawley said. “I mean, we give you a lot of access. I just want to make sure that you’re actually sober and taking this seriously, Good Lord in Heaven.”
“I’m happy to do a blood alcohol test,” Maxwell responded. “I have had no alcohol this morning and that was a joke. I just want to clarify. We’ll save the festivities for this weekend when the St. Patrick’s Day festivities take off, but that will be off the clock.”
[Image by Graeme Sloan / Sipa USA via AP file]
