Resistance1000
28026
850
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Remember when Hawley was running for his life to escape those “tourists” with “love in their heart”?
Jul 31, 2026 2:44 AM
Resistance1000
28026
850
17
Remember when Hawley was running for his life to escape those “tourists” with “love in their heart”?
yamsonyamsonyams
How many goddamn times is this exact image going to be posted this week, do we think?
THEmichaelscarn12
May the 5th be with you… /gallery/vQwH2E3 Trump pleads 5th 440 times
ATLandNerdy
I don't draw negative inference from someone exercising their 5th amendment rights, that's something Trump would do
LookingLikeASnack
A senator smearing a fundamental legal right that protects every American citizen, stating that it is only used by the dishonest. That this isn't a blip on the radar for American politics just shows how unbelievably low the bar has sunk.
FishieStardust
RigidGristle
fartyandbloated
Literally just read that chapter in Regime Change (great book). Trump invoked the 5th 400 times in FOUR HOURS.
Chapter 15. Excellent book.
DonL9
Somebody needs to remind Josh of that fact and see if he wants to go on record calling his Messiah a hypocrite.
AgainstMethod
Man, just straight up anti-constitution
Syovere
I hate that fucking Nazi.
SleepyHollowAppleTree
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/hawley-kinzinger-jan-6-video-b2129239.html
thatwoodguy
Trump said it himself that no honest person takes the 5th, before taking in himself several hundred times
Bizarkly
Hawley is **so brave** -- but only when he doesn't *need* to be...
RealEpoona
Pleading the fifth neither should mean you are hiding anything nor should considered guilty
Osiricus
Everything with the Republican party is spectacle...zero substance. If they presented their actual, real platform, the GOP wouldn't exist and Trump would be having intimate time with Bubba right now.
jediknightswhosayni
Exactly! Republicans can't stand by their policies or actions because most of the time they are horrible, so all they have left is character assassination and bullshit hearings. They have been doing it for decades.
Osiricus
Yep, it's part of a decades long campaign of anti-intellectualism. Corporations wanted to find a way to get Americans to support policies that were against their interests and the Democratic party wasn't feasible due to their education and generally helpful stances on women and minorities. Dipshit conservatives made the perfect targets and provided a great facade so long as they could give their voters an enemy, any enemy, that wasn't the parasite class. Now here we are.
jenofthelake
McCarthyism all over again only way worse
katnaka
Hawley is just a cnt
walnutbreath
No honest person would describe that hearing as anything other than a show trial. Only an idiot would testify at their own show trial.
Fentex
This sort of ill intended bad faith bullshit inquisition is exactly why the right is enshrined.
onecatnokids
My FB feed had a post from Hawley stating that he was going to pursue making it illegal for fed. employees to accept gifts, money, etc. Is he admitting to not knowing that laws for that already exists???? Looking out for the merican people, god love him.
GreatOdinsTaint
Man these distractions from the Epstein files are getting increasingly desperate.
The president rapes children and probably participated in murdering some to cover it up, and the GOP is trying to kangaroo court a physician over nothing.
At this point conservatives are just openly admitting they don't care about pedophilia or murder unless a Democrat or brown person does it.
MendoncycleSmith
I look forward to the day I see Hawley, swinging by his neck....
GlenL
The Epstein party is pretty damn pissed that they didn't catch anything on their little fishing expedition
SometimesOthertimesAnytime
The smirk he had when asking the questions annoyed the fuck out of me.
KR1570F
I prefer the grimace he made running away like a coward from his own people. Not as much fist in the air badass when they're knocking down his walls from behind.
GargleTheseNutz360
What the fuck is Coward Hawley talking about when people stay silent instead of answering for their actions.
wibbIywobbIytimeywimey
The smirk he has annoys the fuck out of me
MerriMod
He asked those questions specifically for this sort of social media nonsense. Any actual hearing of merit would've had that sort of completely irrelevant questioning immediately called out by the head. This whole thing is a shameful farce from top to bottom.
MiserCrass
His face in general at any time annoys the fuck out of me.
1stDrunkJoe
So Joshua when you're dragged over the coals and you plead the fifth we should just take that as a confession right?
lordyhalvey
Still no epstien arrests.
TheobromineAddict
You certainly plead the 5th when it's the devil asking questions.
grandfalloon
I would plead the 5th on every fucking question they asked, on the grounds that "You pigfucking plague rats have no right to question me."
RainierAlt
Well that's what he's doing. One of them said on TV or whatnot that the whole point of this was to ask loaded or awkward questions and hope he said something different than before, or otherwise usable to bring about a perjury charge. He's smart enough to know that and so are his lawyers.
MikeRInternetTraveler
That was Rand Paul, the shitstain that kicked Fauci’s lawyer out of the hearing. he literally said something to the effect of “He was pardoned for lies he already told. If he lies again, he’ll go to prison.”
So they’re trying to grill Fauci on menial bullshit, get him to say something like “We met on the 18th”, so they can then go “AckShually! The meeting was the 19th! Liar! PERJURY! JAIL FOR PERJURY!!1!!2!”
And Fauci knows that, which is why he’s pleading the 5th on everything.
SergeyPrkl
In all other countries this is simply illegal. It's like torture. Eventually you get the answer you want. No matter if it is the truth or not.
BenderSaysNeat
Crazy how the founders, in all their apparent omnipotent and timeless wisdom, wrote an amendment in the bill of rights that only guilty criminals would use and is thus a dastardly right to invoke.
Whitebeardthepirate
indeed. shame though that this is now a dictatorship, and the constitution, bill of rights, law order and democracy are all toilet paper to them.
LittleAzie
What is even crazier to me is they meant it to be a living document and not some 'holy document' meant to be enshrined and no new rights enumerated as society grew. Some days I feel like the union has grown too big to be governable, and others I feel like we need to burn it all down so we can remove the systematic tyranny meant to keep raise only the elite...
euphxenos
They dragged Fauci in front of Congress in bad faith. The whole point of this ridiculous exercise is to try to question him under oath so much that eventually he trips up on a question and gives a different answer from something he said previously, at which point they will try to prosecute him for perjury, because they want to go after him and have no legitimate reason. He's pleading the fifth on every question because he's not an idiot and understands what they're doing.
TacoPoweredHelicopter
I don't even understand what they are doing? Like what's the goal here? Trying to pretend COVID did not happen? Trying to what? I don't get it?
Just epstien distraction? War distraction?
withcheeseplease
The point of these hearings is to get themselves on TV. So they could clip it and send it to their supporters while asking for donations.
The fact that they all fruitlessly kept reading their prepared "questions" being made aware beforehand by Fauci's statement that he would plead the 5th for all of it, proves it wasn't about trying to get to the truth, it was about them getting their faces on the evening news.
MyCommentsUsuallyHaveTypos
And he wasn't so lazy to just say "Same answer" 400+ times.
Frencheeseater
Basically, why is he on trial ? is it because the MAGA King wanted revenge over Covid, or other lunacy, or to divert from Epstein Files ?
ParrotHat
Yes
hyperchondriac
Which is exactly what his opening statement spelled out. That the whole hearing was a sham trying to do exactly what you stated. Then Rand Paul threw a hissy fit and kicked out Fauci's lawyer like a toddler being told they couldn't have a cookie.
WhattaMattahYou
they also blocked his lawyer from the room
fuck those jagoffs with a cactus
baloogarus
I just learned about this from climatetown. Always wondered why they ask irrelevant questions
Katiger
I imagine it is to get him to trip up and answer an 'innocent' question which would open up an avenue of other less innocent questions. My understanding is that if he answers on a topic that means that he revokes his 5th amendment right for that topic. I could be wrong though as my exposure to the US legal system is mostly through tv shows. Would love for someone more knowledgeable to provide better insight.
crazyspelling
US lawyer here: nah, it's per question. In a serious setting, you'd want to do it as little as possible because it opens you up to sanctions and censure if you use it unnecessarily. Doing it to every question is just tweaking the questioner. Which is fine because previous poster has it right: they're just fishing for inconsistent statements to use to go after him for perjury. The whole thing is a criminal investigation and any answer at all could incriminate him!
Banzai51
Once you start pleading the 5th, you have to keep doing it. From what I understand you can't selectively use the 5th. So once he started, the GOP knows it can ask dumb questions for theater.
silhouettegundam
No. You plead the fifth on individual questions. It is exactly selective.
Mmbear
And even then, it’s his constitutional right to do so if for no other reason than he can. You cannot be forced to give testimony against yourself and legally it would be stupid to do so.
jesuisgur
Then why don't people *always* plead the 5th every time a cop or jury asks a question ? It would derail most investigations.
LoudBirb
They always should, unless advised otherwise by a lawyer. But it's like asking "why don't people learn how credit scores work?" They don't know what they don't know.
Raileks
In investigations, you generally have the "right to remain silent" and many lawyers would advise you to ask for a lawyer and then use that right when you're arrested. Pleading the 5th is something you do in court and directly refers to the 5th amendment which is the principle from which both these actions originate.
NemoPseudonymWuzHere
To be clear, you have to tell the cop, verbatim, "I am invoking my right to an attorney, and I am invoking my right to remain silent". Nothing less has stood up in court. Oh, an if an officer stops you, while you may have to provide ID, and potentially other paperwork, on request(depending on state and nature of the encounter), you may invoke your right to remain silent in answer to all other questions. See above for instructions.
SergeyPrkl
This is why america is America. In all other countries this kind of stupid stuff is non-existent because the basic rules apply where you don't need to remember exact words of law to gain better treatment. Everyone gets treated equally. No matter what.
digitreal
Didn't they kick out his lawyer from the room before all of this too?
MagnumRadhard
According to Rand, it was one of his "60" lawyers. 🙄
withcheeseplease
They kicked him out when he spoke to defend his client. It was a power trip by Rand Paul. It's like a judge removing a lawyer from his court for trying to voice an objection. It is completely unserious.
mastertmo
One of them, he had others
Resistance1000
Yes. I'm sure when the time comes, all the MAGAts on that committee will be happy to stand trial without a lawyer. /s
SheepySleepySmuggler
Maybe we could just provide lawyers at the other side of the wood chipper? Technically, it's not justice but on the other hand they have had years to act in a manner that deserves a court trial.
pancreas
kangaroo court
ExTechOp
Fauci’s lawyer, David Schertler, was escorted from the room after the Senate Homeland Security Committee’s Republican chair Rand Paul warned of “consequences” and “repercussions” for Fauci’s refusal to testify Wednesday.
— https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/anthony-fauci-rand-paul-hearing-fifth-amendment-b3023803.html
crossingdynasty
You can’t just show up to a congressional hearing and plead the fifth - you do what the GOP recommends and just ignore the subpoena entirely.
RumailMaxlowBaronVonAlabasterSerenitydePeriwinkleXXIII
Had me in the first half lmao