The Senate is usually split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans, but in a rare moment of bipartisanship Thursday, it was split between Sen. Josh Hawley and everybody else. The Missouri Republican was the only senator who voted against a bill to combat the rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans. "As a former prosecutor, my view is it's dangerous to simply give the federal government open-ended authority to define a whole new class of federal hate crime incidents," he said in a statement, per KMBC, though those concerns apparently weren't shared by any other members of the GOP caucus. With five senators absent, the bill passed 94-1. More:
- "That's his brand." Hawley was condemned in an editorial at the Kansas City Star. "Of course Josh Hawley was the only no ... That's his brand," the editorial board wrote, saying Hawley appears to believe "America is too tough on hate crimes." Nothing in the bill gives the government "open-ended authority," says the editorial, which notes that the former Missouri attorney general is also wrong about being a former prosecutor, though the AG's office did have some prosecutorial powers.