Footage of Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) has recently circulated throughout social media, showing him exposing a Biden nominee for allegedly lying under oath when appearing before Congress. Hawley, known for his firm confrontation of Biden appointees, called out Dr. Colleen Shogan, who was appointed to lead the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
As background, the Missouri Republican grilled Shogan during a 2023 congressional hearing, excoriating her over her “grossly partisan” tweets. The appointee defended herself, claiming her tweets were made in her “personal capacity.” This was Shogan’s second appearance before the Senate Homeland Security Committee after her nomination was previously blocked.
The viral clip, shows Hawley pressing Shogan over being untruthful in regards to social media posts she had made, while stonewalling the committee. “I mean, this is unbelievable, and you want to be the archivist of the United States; you lied to us under oath. you lied to us in your QFRs.” he said. “You just lied to me a second ago under oath, and now you’re sending your stonewalling, not answering questions about public posts that you’ve made.”
Hawlyer continued, “Mr. Chairman, I have to tell you this is the most extraordinary thing I have seen in my brief time of the Senate, I have never seen a witness, blatantly lie under oath like Dr. Shogun has just under this committee. Stonewall this committee, and just repeatedly refused to answer my questions about her own posts. I mean this it.”
One person on X reacted to the clip, writing that Republicans should actually hold people accountable who lie before Congress. “Why did Martha Stewart go to jail for lying under oath to congress about a stock trade and every time a Republican catches someone lying under oath to congress, they do absolutely nothing! Lying under oath to congress is meaningless! Why even put them under oath? Watch… Hawley will not refer her for charges,” they wrote.
In other criticism during the hearing, Hawley said, “You responded as follows. And I quote, ‘My personal Twitter account is comprised of posts about my mystery novels, events at the White House Historical Association, Pittsburgh sports teams, travels and my dog.’” Furthermore, Hawley highlighted Shogan’s past social media posts, some of which criticized the lifting of mask mandates for school children, supported gun laws, and criticized Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.
“You talk about an assault weapons ban, retweeted a post ‘Ban assault weapons now,’ say you agree with this idea that you have to be a certain age to buy so-called assault weapons in America. Is that a post about sports teams or your dog or mystery novels?” Hawley asked Shogan. She repeatedly said, ““My social media is in my personal capacity, senator.”
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“It does worry me, not that you’re liberal — I mean, that doesn’t, I think if we got rid of liberals we might not have a lot of librarians or archivists, frankly — but I am worried about the idea that you would advise people at the Library of Congress about, you know, taking down religious flags in a public place,” another concern was raised about her.
Watch Hawley criticize Shogan below:
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.