The crowd at CPAC on Friday afternoon gave Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) a standing ovation for his deluded insistence that the election was stolen. Hawley, who was pictured on Jan. 6 fist pumping the crowd that later stormed the Capitol, reminded the audience of diehard Trumpers that he voted against certifying the presidential election results. “You know, on January the 6th, I objected during the electoral college certification. Maybe you heard about it,” he joked. “I stood up and I said… we ought to have a debate about election integrity.”

He loudly insisted that he was “silenced” simply for trying to disenfranchise millions of voters. “I thought it was an important stand to take, and for that the left has come after me. They tried to silence me. They canceled a book,” he said. Simon & Schuster shelved Hawley’s book, citing his involvement in inciting the Capitol riot, but it has not-so-silently been picked up by another publisher.