Hawley, speaking with Fox News Friday evening, was asked how the “new GOP” can appeal to minority voters across the country and “how conservatives can win the war of ideas.” Hawley and host Lawrence Jones touted former President Donald Trump as “the man” for receiving votes from the “most racially diverse” voting base of any Republican president since 1960—but they both blasted the Republican Party itself for not doing enough to appeal to working class voters of all racial backgrounds. Jones pressed Hawley to explain why the GOP didn’t do more to expand its voting base in Georgia, where it lost both Senate seats to Democrats, largely due to minority voters.
Hawley went on to accuse Democrats of working hand-in-hand with large corporations to force American workers to compete with overseas workers he described as slaves or vastly underpaid and overworked.
“We’ve got to be the party of working people. We’ve got to be the party of getting jobs back in this country. We’ve got to be the party of higher wages for working people. And we need new opportunities for people to get job-training skills without having to pay for an expensive four-year education that they don’t want.”
“The Democrats have made American workers compete with slave labor, and they’ve done it in order to get rich, so the big corporations could get rich. It’s time to bring those jobs back and create opportunities in our urban core, in our rural areas, everywhere. For American workers, that’s where I’d start,” Hawley added.
Hawley has consistently blasted U.S. trade deals he sees as a benefit to international corporations and foreign countries such as China. But he told Fox News Friday that “these jobs have been shipped overseas to the lowest bidder and for the lowest wages.”
“Why don’t we start with the disastrous trade policies and economic policies that the liberals in step with a big corporation have pursued for 30, 40 years and who’s been hurt most, working folks, African-Americans working folks, Latino working folks, white working folks, Asian working folks, you name it. They’re the ones whose communities have suffered as these jobs have been shipped off to China. As these jobs have been shipped overseas to the lowest bidder to the lowest wages,” Hawley said.
Jones agreed with Hawley and accused Democrats of “gaslighting” the Black community and “fighting dirty” to expand the party’s voter base among minorities. Jones said that any gains made over the past four years among Black voters came from Trump “the man, not the party as a whole.”
“They don’t care that restricting our freedom and expanding the power of the state is having a dangerous long-term impact on Black and Brown people. They are trying to gaslight us on racial issues,” Jones said in an attempt to explain how Democrats brought out a record number of Black voters in several states including Georgia.
Jones said one step Congress could take is to “eliminate unconstitutional gun laws” instead of “locking young Black men up for firearm possession.”
Newsweek reached out to Hawley’s Missouri offices for additional remarks Saturday afternoon.
