Video Shows Moment GOP Senator Josh Hawley Leaves Stage Over Heckling
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
Senator Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, was temporarily escorted from the stage amid heckling from pro-Palestinian demonstrations during a panel discussion about the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on American workers with Axios Wednesday morning.
Newsweek reached out to Hawley's office for comment via email.
Why It Matters
Politicians from both sides of the aisle have faced protests from pro-Palestinian protesters during public appearances over the past few years, as the U.S. has remained a closer ally to Israel despite humanitarian concerns about its actions in Gaza.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas led an attack against Israel, killing 1,200 and abducting 251 people. Israel has said 50 hostages remain in Gaza and that only 21 of them are believed to still be alive. Israel has since launched an offensive on Gaza, killing more than 59,000 people, according to The Associated Press, citing Gaza's Health Ministry.
Critics have raised concerns about the number of civilians killed or displaced, as well as conditions such as the threat of starvation in the Gaza Strip. Others, however, have said Israel has a right to respond to the October 7 attack and have blamed Hamas for putting these civilians in harm's way.
What to Know
Hawley, who has been supportive of Israel, faced heckling during Axios' News Shapers conference in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday morning with journalist Stef Kight. The interruption came during a discussion about AI. Hawley warned about a his concerns on "a huge loss of jobs for working people," and that lawmakers need to "put people at the center of our technology policy."
"If we don't do that, I'm worried about what that's going to mean for ordinary working Americans," Hawley said.
Kight continued to ask if he feels like is "alone in that kind of approach," when one protester began shouting at the senator.
Senator Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on April 09, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Senator Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on April 09, 2025 in Washington, DC."Josh Hawley cannot possibly care about people in this country because he is supporting a war of starvation," the protester said.
Kight asked the protester to allow her to continue with the interview, noting that it was the first instance of a protester during Wednesday's event. She then escorted Hawley from the stage, though Hawley asked, "aAre you sure?" when she got up.
Kight and Hawley quickly returned to the stage after about one minute. Kight asked attendees to "be respectful and allow us to continue our conversation." Hawley quipped that it was "just another day in the Senate" before continuing on with the conversation.
The two protesters with the group Code Pink were removed from the event after the disruption, according to video footage that has circulated across social media.
What People Are Saying
Hawley wrote on X: "Hahahah - pro-Hamas CRAZIES tried to disrupt another event this morning. What a bunch of nutcases. I'm proud as ever to stand for America and our ally Israel."
Code Pink, the group that led the protest, on X: "We shut down Josh Hawley because his career is built on suffering from Gaza to the U.S. As 2.2 million Palestinians face forced starvation, he doubles down on genocide. We won't let him speak freely while children starve."
What Happens Next
The conflict between Israel and Hamas continues as President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff prepares to head to the Middle East to try to broker a ceasefire deal.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
3 minutes ago
- New York Post
I'm a proud American who wanted to stay on the frontlines in Ukraine rather than come home to Columbia University
United States Air Force drone pilot Sam Nahins just returned to NYC after three weeks volunteering on the frontlines in Ukraine. Nahins, 32, — a Jewish graduate student in fine arts at Columbia University was among those trapped inside Butler Library in May when it was taken over by anti-Israel protesters — tells The Post's Doree Lewak about his anxious homecoming. I'm a proud American patriot — I love this country to death. That's why I enlisted in the US Air Force for six years as soon as I graduated high school in North Carolina. I spent three weeks this summer volunteering on the frontlines in Ukraine with the relief group Help is on the WayUA, providing supplies to the frontlines. Advertisement We survived getting shelled, being attacked by drones and skirted artery fire 24/7. 4 US Air Force veteran Sam Nahins just returned from three weeks of volunteering in Ukraine. Courtesy of Sam Nahins But when it was over, my feeling was, 'I don't want to come home.' Advertisement Just look at my school's recent history. Last month, the notorious group Unity of Fields — the same group which took over Columbia's Butler Library — posted on X an image of mass veterans coffins draped in American flags accompanied by a heart emoji and caption reading, 'soon inshallah.' It means 'G-d willing.' That's who I'm going to school with. Of course I'm not going to feel welcome. Veterans aren't looking for a thank you. We just don't want to be called baby killers anymore. We don't want to be threatened and disrespected like this. Advertisement 4 Nahins says he was trapped inside Butler Hall when a mob of anti-Israel protesters invaded. REUTERS My friend, fellow veteran and Columbia classmate, Brandon Christie, stopped attending classes in the weeks following Oct. 7, 2023 – and ultimately took his own life. So when Columbia sits by as Veterans Day is hijacked for Martyrs Day and laud groups like Unity of Fields, you start to get the picture. My motivation for going to Ukraine was simple: I've flown drones for the US Air Force, flying a plane remotely somewhere in the Middle East fighting ISIS and al Qaeda. Advertisement 4 Nahins, a Columbia student, said he felt more at ease in Ukraine than New York. Courtesy of Sam Nahins I served overseas in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. But I'd never actually been to a warzone. I needed that perspective. I was getting shelled and attacked by drones while embedded with Ukraine's 25th battalion. But I was in good hands. No one was trying to stab me in the back — at least I knew what the enemy was. Turns out, I felt more at ease in Ukraine than I do in New York. As a grad student at Columbia, where 20-year-olds who have never seen a war in their lives call me 'baby killer,' 'murderer' and 'colonizer,' I feel like my own school and city don't have my back. In Ukraine, people proudly wave American flags. By contrast, at Columbia, we had Martyrs Day on Veterans Day. It's crazy. Advertisement Here in New York, it feels like everyone hates each other. In Ukraine you have a full spectrum of individuals and yet somehow they're all united. We need a lot more of that. In America, we have this feeling of 'Oppression Olympics,' but the Ukrainians in no way want to be pitied. Sure, the people want and need support, but they're not playing the victim game. 4 Nahins alleges he was called a 'baby killer' by fellow students. Courtesy of Sam Nahins Advertisement My experience felt sobering: Ukrainians love America more than Americans. They joke, 'Where is your Iraqi scarf?' They know how ridiculous Columbia is. I'm not giving up on my school or city – and definitely not my country. But I feel very unwanted here. Before I left Ukraine, I put my resume out there, and was offered three jobs for non-military positions. I'm still deciding whether to go back.
Fox Sports
3 minutes ago
- Fox Sports
Trump plays golfs in Scotland while protesters take to the streets and decry his visit
Associated Press EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) — President Donald Trump played golf Saturday at his course on Scotland's coast while protesters around the country took to the streets to decry his visit and accuse United Kingdom leaders of pandering to the American. Trump and his son Eric played with the U.S. ambassador to Britain, Warren Stephens, near Turnberry, a historic course that the Trump family's company took over in 2008. Hundreds of protesters gathered on the cobblestone and tree-lined street in front of the U.S. Consulate about 100 miles (160 kilometers) away in Edinburgh, Scotland's capital. Speakers on a makeshift stage told the crowd that Trump was not welcome and they criticized British Prime Minister Keir Starmer for striking a recent trade deal to avoid stiff U.S. tariffs on goods imported from the U.K. Protests were planned in other cities as environmental activists, opponents of Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza and pro-Ukraine groups loosely formed a 'Stop Trump Coalition." 'I think there are far too many countries that are feeling the pressure of Trump and that they feel that they have to accept him and we should not accept him here,' said June Osbourne, 52, a photographer and photo historian from Edinburgh who protested wearing a red cloak and white hood, recalling "The Handmaid's Tale." Osbourne held up picture of Trump with 'Resist' stamped over his face. The dual-U.S.-Scottish citizen said the Republican president was "the worst thing that has happened to the world, the U.S., in decades.' Saturday's protests were not nearly as large as the throngs that came out across Scotland when Trump played at the resort during his first term in 2018. But bagpipes played, people chanted 'Trump Out!' and raised homemade signs that said 'No red carpet for dictators," 'We don't want you here' and 'Stop Trump. Migrants welcome.' One dog had a sign that said 'No treats for tyrants.' Some on the far right took to social media to call for gatherings supporting Trump in places such as Glasgow. Upon arriving in Scotland on Friday night, Trump admonished European leaders for not cracking down on immigration. 'This immigration is killing Europe," he said. 'You better get your act together,' Trump said. 'You're not going to have Europe anymore.' While in Scotland, Trump is set to talk trade with Starmer and Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president. But golf is a major focus. The Trumps will also visit another Trump course, in the Aberdeen area in northeastern Scotland. They plan to cut a ribbon on Tuesday, opening the second Trump course. The president has long lobbied for Turnberry to host the British Open, which it has not done since he took over ownership. 'There's no place like it,' he said Friday night. in this topic
Vox
4 minutes ago
- Vox
Four stories that are more important than the Epstein Files
is a senior editorial director at Vox overseeing the climate teams and the Unexplainable and The Gray Area podcasts. He is also the editor of Vox's Future Perfect section and writes the Good News newsletter. He worked at Time magazine for 15 years as a foreign correspondent in Asia, a climate writer, and an international editor, and he wrote a book on existential risk. It's not too much to say that the business of America has all but halted because of a years-old criminal the past couple of weeks, one story has overshadowed every other, no matter how important they might be: Jeffrey Epstein. Unless you've been taking your summer vacation on Mars, you probably know the contours of the story. (And if you don't, my Vox colleague Andrew Prokop wrote a useful summary this week.) But what matters here isn't so much the details as it is the sheer, unrelenting attention it has commanded. Between July 6, before the story really began to blow up, and July 13, online searches on the topic increased by 1,900 percent, according to a Newsweek analysis. A CNN analyst noted that over roughly the same time scale, Epstein was Googled 2.5 times more than Grok — this during the AI model's, uh, newsworthy launch — and 1.4 times more than tariffs. The furor over the case has led to Congress essentially shutting down early for the summer, a Republican effort to evade Democrats' sudden and politically convenient demands for transparency. It's not too much to say that the business of America has all but halted because of a years-old criminal case. I'm not saying the Epstein case is totally without importance. The crime was horrific, the investigation details murky, and the political ramifications if the case shakes the president's connection to his political base are obviously meaningful. (And if you want to read about any of that, well, good news — you have no shortage of sources.) But there is virtually no way we'll look back in 20 years and think that the relitigation of the Epstein case was clearly the most important thing happening in the world in July 2025. Related Something remarkable is happening with violent crime rates in the US Attention is a finite resource, and you are where your attention is. A story like Epstein is analogous to a mindless, out-of-control fire consuming all the oxygen in a burning house. So I thought I'd put together a list of four stories happening right now that matter far more for the country and the world than the contents of the Epstein Files. And fair warning — they're not all good news stories, but they absolutely are worth your attention. 1) America's dangerous debt spiral Through the first nine months of the 2025 fiscal year, which goes up to this June, the United States spent $749 billion on interest on the national debt, more than it spent on anything other than Social Security. Not the debt itself — just the interest. And our debt problem is accelerating: According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), President Donald Trump's recently passed budget bill will add $3.4 trillion to the national balance sheet over the next decade. You might say: So what? Budget scolds have been warning about the debt since at least the 1980s, and the most dire predictions have yet to come true. But as the economist Herbert Simon once warned, referring specifically to unsustainable economic policies: 'If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.' While 'there's no magic number at which the debt load becomes a full-on crisis,' as my colleague Dylan Matthews wrote last year, just about everything that is happening now — including persistently high interest rates, which make debt that much more painful, as anyone with a recent mortgage knows — indicates that crisis point is on its way. And what will happen then? The CBO warns that unless budget patterns shift dramatically, the country will face an unpalatable mix of massive tax hikes, severe cuts to essential services, even default. And our debt problem intersects catastrophically with some of America's other generational challenges, like the fertility and aging crisis (see No. 3) and the country's ability to defend itself (No. 4). 2) A global hunger crisis I've written before about the long-term improvements in child mortality and extreme poverty. Those trends are real, and they represent some of the best reasons to feel optimistic about the world. But positive long-term trends can mask periods of setback. When it comes to childhood hunger, the world is in danger of falling back. A new UNICEF report shows that after more than two decades of consistent progress, child stunting — early-life malnutrition that can lead to less growth and lifelong health problems — appears to be rising again. And while the humanitarian catastrophe that is Gaza at least has the world's attention, if not enough of its help, hunger is spreading in other countries that remain under the radar. In Africa's largest country of Nigeria, nearly 31 million people face acute food insecurity — almost equivalent to the population of Texas. Ethiopia, Pakistan, and Yemen have all seen alarming reversals in childhood nutritional health. Add in surges in food prices driven by extreme weather, and the devastating effects of cuts in US food aid, and you have a recipe for a problem that is getting worse at the very moment when the willingness to help is eroding. 3) A real population bomb When it comes to long-term, world-changing trends, climate change gets most of the attention (if not necessarily the action). But there's another challenge unfolding in nearly every country in the world that will be just as transformative — and for which we may be even less prepared. That's the population slowdown. In 2024, the US fertility rate hit an all-time low of less than 1.6 births per woman, far below the 2.1 required to maintain the current population level. While other countries like Japan or Italy will get there sooner, the US is absolutely on a path to an aging, shrinking future. As early as 2033, annual deaths are predicted to outpace annual births, while by 2050, one in every five Americans will be over the age of 65. An aging and eventually shrinking population will put more stress on everything from health care to pension systems to economic productivity, in ways that — absent some kind of technological miracle — will make us poorer, and will change life in ways we can only begin to imagine. And no one really has any idea how to fix it, or if it's even fixable at all. 4) A generational security challenge The Cold War ended nearly 35 years ago. For all of that time, the US has enjoyed a historically unprecedented position of global military supremacy. Americans have lived with the background assumption that the US would never really face a war with a true geopolitical rival — and certainly wouldn't lose one. Of all our national privileges, that might be the most foundational one. But that foundation is in danger of crumbling. At the same time, America's munitions reserves are dangerously low. In supporting Israel during its recent conflict with Iran, nearly 14 percent of the US's vital THAAD missile interceptor inventory was expended — just replenishing those stores may take up to eight years. Meanwhile, Pentagon authorities temporarily paused shipments of Patriot missiles and other critical air-defense systems to Ukraine amid global stockpile pressures. US air defenses now reportedly have only a quarter of the interceptors needed for all the Pentagon's military plans. Should a major conflict pop up in, oh I don't know, Taiwan, essential munitions could be depleted far faster than production could replace them. That's how you lose wars. None of these stories are scandals, and none of them generate great social media content. They're hard, long-term, wonky, even boring. But they are important. And they deserve our attention. A version of this story originally appeared in the Good News newsletter. Sign up here!
