Sherrod Brown calls for Hawley, Cruz to resign from Senate

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) joined calls on Saturday for Republican Sens. Josh Hawley (Mo.) and Ted Cruz (Texas) to resign after they supported objections to the 2020 Electoral College results on Wednesday.

Brown appeared to refer to the senators’ support of objections to the electoral college votes of Arizona and Pennsylvania — two key battleground states that broke for President-elect Joe Biden in November’s presidential election.

During a debate of the Arizona objection, a violent mob of Trump’s supporters attacked the Capitol, breaching security and halting the certification process of the election results. Both chambers of Congress were forced to evacuate due to the breach. 

Brown took to Twitter early Saturday evening, writing that both senators have “betrayed their oaths of office and abetted a violent insurrection on our democracy.”

He called for both GOP lawmakers to immediately resign. Should they not do so, “the Senate must expel them,” said.

Both @HawleyMO and @SenTedCruz have betrayed their oaths of office and abetted a violent insurrection on our democracy.

I am calling for their immediate resignations.

If they do not resign, the Senate must expel them.

— Sherrod Brown (@SenSherrodBrown) January 9, 2021

The Hill has reached out to Cruz’s for comment on Brown’s tweet. The Hill has also reached out to Brown’s office for further comment on Wednesday’s events at the Capitol. 

Hawley’s office, when asked to comment, pointed to remarks that he made on the Senate floor condemning the riots Wednesday night. 

“Violence is never warranted, violence will not be tolerated,” he said.

According to the Constitution, “Each House [of Congress] may determine the Rules of its proceedings” and “punish its members for disorderly behavior,” It further states that the “concurrence of two-thirds” of the Senate is needed to expel a member. 

Thus far, only 15 senators have been expelled from the chamber since 1789. Of that number, 14 were expelled for supporting the Confederacy during the Civil War, according to the Senate’s website. 

The statement from Brown is the latest call for Cruz and Hawley to step down in the wake of the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol. The mob attacked the building in an effort to stop Congress from certifying Biden as the next president. 

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the third-ranking member of the Senate Democratic leadership on Friday called for her two GOP colleagues to resign.

“At the end of the day, our job 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. Senators Hawley and Cruz should resign,” Murray said in a statement. 

Before lawmakers were poised to meet on Jan. 6, Hawley became the first member of the Senate to signal that he would support objecting to the election results during the joint session of Congress. Cruz and several other Republicans later said the same.  

Hawley has said he has done nothing wrong in a statement provided to The Hill on Friday. 

“I will never apologize for giving voice to the millions of Missourians and Americans who have concerns about the integrity of our elections. That’s my job and I will keep doing it,” he said.

A spokesperson for Cruz ripped Murray for making a “hypocritical” and “dishonest” statement. 

“Sen. Murray’s rhetoric is hypocritical, dishonest and dangerous,” said the Cruz aide Friday. “Sen. Cruz immediately condemned this terrorist attack and called for anyone who stormed the Capitol to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Brown also urged the Cabinet and Vice President Mike Pence to remove Trump from office with less than two weeks to go in his presidential term in a Jan. 7 tweet.

“I am calling on the cabinet and vice president to immediately invoke the 25th Amendment,” he wrote.

President Trump must be removed from office for inciting yesterday’s violent insurrection.

I am calling on the cabinet and vice president to immediately invoke the 25th Amendment. pic.twitter.com/tilP7y24jk

— Sherrod Brown (@SenSherrodBrown) January 7, 2021

Updated 7:40 p.m.