Video shows Jan. 6 hearing room burst into laughter when shown footage of Josh Hawley fleeing the Capitol riot

• The Jan 6. committee played unseen video of Sen. Josh Hawley apparently fleeing during the Capitol riot.
• Hours earlier, he had raised his fist to the crowd in what the panel said was an effort to rile them up.

Attendees at Thursday's January 6 committee hearing erupted into laughter when they were shown footage of GOP Sen. Josh Hawley fleeing the Capitol during the insurrection.

Rep. Elaine Luria, a Democrat on the committee, said that hours before fleeing, Hawley was seen raising his fist "in solidarity" with the protesters, and that a Capitol Police officer told the panel that the gesture "riled up the crowd."

"Later that day, Senator Hawley fled after those protesters he helped rile up stormed the Capitol," Luria said. "See for yourself."

The committee then played never-seen-before footage of Hawley running across a hallway and down a flight of stairs as the Capitol riot was underway.

—The New York Times (@nytimes) July 22, 2022

The laughter was easy to hear within the cavernous room the panel holds its hearings. Footage published by Dan Pryzgoda, a filmmaker working with the committee, also captured the scene:

—Dan Przygoda (@dprzygoda) July 22, 2022

Michael Fanone, the former DC Police officer who was attacked by rioters, told Politico's JC Whittington after Thursday's hearing that the first thought that came to his mind after the video played was: "Josh Hawley is a bitch. And he ran like a bitch."

He said Hawley's raised fist compared to his running "just shows the true character, or lack thereof" of Hawley.

He also said that "there was an eruption of laughter" in the room over the video.

"Obviously I see the amusement of it and I'm not going to fault people for finding it humorous, but that pisses me off. That guy's a clown. You see the way that these guys perform in public and then what they are in reality."

Fanone, who is now a CNN commentator, later told the network of Hawley: "I thought he ran like a coward."

"Like many people in Trump world, he performs when he's in front of a camera, and he acts very differently when he is not," he added.

Prosecutors say that during the riot, Fanone was shot with a stun gun several times, dragged down several steps, and beaten with a flagpole, and that he suffered a heart attack.