EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., told members of the largest conservative caucus in the House that Supreme Court nomination hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson revealed Democrats’ passivity on crime, particularly concerning child pornography, and charged their allies in Big Tech are helping promote the exploitation of kids.
In remarks made during a closed-door Republican Study Committee (RSC) lunch Wednesday, Hawley said his biggest takeaway from the hours of confirmation hearings with Jackson last week is that “the Democrats really have become unapologetically the radical pro-crime party.”
Hawley claimed Big Tech companies are complicit in the explosion of child porn. The number of online images and videos depicting child sexual abuse has grown exponentially, with the number skyrocketing from less than 1 million a decade ago to 45 million in 2018, according to The New York Times.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., addresses members of the Republican Study Committee (RSC) on Capitol Hill on March 30, 2022.
(Courtesy Republican Study Committee)
Hawley, who wrote a book about Big Tech censorship, said the number was nearly 85 million in 2021, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
“These tech companies are the reason it’s exploding,” he said, claiming they readily clamp down on conservative voices while not doing enough to curb child exploitation.
“If they don’t like your speech about core political issues, they’ll deplatform you,” he said. “And yet child pornography is rampant on these platforms. It is rampant across these different tech companies.”
“There’s just no other way to put it,” Hawley said regarding the Democrats. “Their agenda is pro-criminal and is pro-crime, and you can see this in the hearings that we had last week with Judge Jackson.”
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Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., speaks to members of the Republican Study Committee (RSC) on Capitol Hill on March 30, 2022.
(Courtesy Republican Study Committee)
Hawley made headlines last week for his heated questioning of Jackson regarding her sentences for child porn offenders that fell below federal guidelines, punishments by the judge that Hawley and other critics such as Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, have described as too lenient.
Noting how he likes Jackson personally, Hawley explained to the RSC gathering that he and Jackson disagree fundamentally on the substance of the law.
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“This is an individual who, across her career — from the time she was in law school, to her service on the United States Sentencing Commission, to her time on the federal bench — has consistently argued to give criminals lighter sentences to reduce the mandatory sentences that are imposed for criminal offenses to let criminals out of jail early,” Hawley said.
Hawley went on to blast the Democrats for characterizing concerns about Jackson’s record on child porn offenders as a “conspiracy theory.”
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson listens to questions from Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., seen on video display, as she testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill on March 22, 2022.
(REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz)
“This is from the same party that said that if you are a parent, and you’ve got concerns about your kids being taught critical race theory or having to wear masks in school, you’re a domestic terrorist,” Hawley said. “This same party is now saying to parents, ‘If you’re concerned about what your kids might be exposed to online, if you’re concerned about the rampant epidemic of child abuse and child exploitation online, you’re just a conspiracy theorist.'”
“I would love to take that debate to the American people in November. I think that the American people are going to have something to say about it, and the fact that the Democrats want to make this their centerpiece argument shows you how radical they have become,” he added.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., address members of the Republican Study Committee (RSC) on Capitol Hill on March 30, 2022.
(Courtesy Republican Study Committee)
Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., who chairs the RSC, told Fox News Digital that “it was a pleasure” to host Hawley at one of their weekly lunches.
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“He’s not afraid to stand up to radical leftists like Judge Jackson. He understands that America’s borders must come first, and he literally wrote the book about taking on Big Tech,” Banks said of Hawley. “We agree it’s crucial for the GOP to keep appealing to working class voters.”
