Hawley in back-and-forth with local reporter: ‘Just want to make sure you’re sober’

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) questioned whether a local reporter was sober during a recent interview, following a tense exchange over the journalist’s comments about Twitter CEO Elon Musk, according to video obtained by Fox News Digital.

“Why all the hate for people who like free speech on Twitter?” Hawley said, before Mark Maxwell of St. Louis’s KSDK News could begin the interview. “What’s going on with that?”

“I don’t understand your reference,” Maxwell said. “What are you referring to?”

Hawley pointed to a March 6 tweet from the reporter, which appears to have since been deleted.

“Does anyone still think Elon buying this site and firing all the experts was a good idea?” a screenshot of the tweet read. “It’s been awhile since I’ve seen any of his bootlickers brag on how efficient the site is now that Sir Galaxy Brain is in charge.”

Maxwell acknowledged that the post was, as Hawley said, “kind of vitriolic.”

“That was a moment of frustration when the site went down and there were a lot of folks in my mentions who had quite a cultish adoration of him,” Maxwell said.

The Missouri senator turned to another of the journalist’s tweets from March 6 that read, “I never said I was sober,” in response to a critical commenter who said, “You seem fair, balanced and sober.”

“I hope you do our interview sober,” Hawley said. “I hope you’re sober now.”

Hawley doubled down on the questions about the reporter’s sobriety later in the exchange, after Maxwell clarified that the tweets were satirical.

“When journalists or so-called journalists refer to people they don’t like as ‘bootlickers’ on a public platform, when they attack folks and then say they don’t necessarily do stuff sober, it does tend to get my attention,” Hawley said. “I mean, we give you a lot of access. I just want to make sure that you’re actually sober and taking this seriously, Good Lord in Heaven.”

“I’m happy to do a blood alcohol test,” Maxwell responded. “I have had no alcohol this morning and that was a joke. I just want to clarify. We’ll save the festivities for this weekend when the St. Patrick’s Day festivities take off, but that will be off the clock.”