Sen. Hawley slams Biden nominee for ‘stonewalling’ on past tweets: ‘This is unbelievable’

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., on Tuesday grilled Biden’s nominee for Archivist of the United States, accusing her of lying under oath and stonewalling his line of questioning after he confronted her on past statements he characterized as partisan.

Colleen Shogan, who would be the first woman to run the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), faced her second hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee after every Republican on the committee voted against confirming her in September.

Hawley recalled during Tuesday’s hearing that he had confronted Shogan in the last hearing about her past tweets that he considered “grossly partisan” and “offensive.” Hawley said he had asked Shogan to provide her public tweets to the committee, since she set her Twitter account to private after her nomination.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., questions Colleen Shogan, nominee to be archivist of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration about her social media postings, during the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee full committee hearing on Shogan’s nomination on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

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“I asked you to provide the public posts that had previously been available on Twitter, because the ones that we have were pretty disturbing,” Hawley said. “You responded as follows, and I quote, my personal Twitter account is comprised of posts about my mystery novels, events at the White House Historical Association, Pittsburgh sports teams travels and my dog, end quote. Is this an accurate statement?”

“Yes, senator,” Shogan responded.

Hawley then asked Shogan to defend multiple tweets in which she expressed political views on topics like gun control, COVID-19 mitigation efforts and former President Donald Trump.

Shogan gave the same answer to every question, stating, “My social media is in my personal capacity, senator.”

“You are under oath before this committee, and I have to say you have placed this issue squarely in record by repeatedly refusing to answer,” Hawley fumed.

“I have to say, I have been here for four years in the Senate. I have never seen a witness stonewall like this before,” he said. “Never, and I’ve seen a lot. This is extraordinary. 

“I mean, this is unbelievable, and you want to be the Archivist of the United States,” he continued later. “You lied to us under oath, you lied to us in your [Questions for the Record], you just lied to me a second ago under oath, and now you’re sitting here stonewalling, not answering questions about public posts that you’ve made.”

Hawley then cited an article Shogan authored in 2007, in which she argued that recent Republican presidents have adopted “anti-intellectualism as a conservative form of populism” in order to combat allegations of elitism.

“Do you stand by your comment that the religious right is part of the rise of anti-intellectualism in American politics?” Hawley asked.

“Senator, that article was written, it was about how Republican presidents use common sense terminology to effectively communicate with Americans,” Shogan responded.

“Dr. Shogan, I’m going to ask you again, will you give to this committee your public posts on Twitter?” Hawley asked.

“My social media is in my personal capacity,” Shogan replied again.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., questions Colleen Shogan, nominee to be archivist of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration about her social media postings, during the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee full committee hearing on Shogan’s nomination on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Colleen Shogan, testifies before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee full committee hearing on her nomination to be archivist of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

“Mr. Chairman, I have to tell you, this is the most extraordinary thing I have seen in my brief time in the Senate,” Hawley said, addressing Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich. “I have never seen a witness blatantly lie under oath like Dr. Shogan has just done to this committee, stonewalled this committee, and just repeatedly refused to answer my questions about her own posts that are in public.”

“For these reasons, I will oppose your nomination and I strongly, strongly urge this committee to take action on this and force this witness to own up to the fact that she is misleading us right now before our eyes,” he added.

Shogan proceeded to defend her background and professional record, saying, “I stand very strongly behind my professional nonpartisan record, which I think speaks for itself.”

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Shogan first appeared before the committee in September in the wake of the FBI raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, which cast scrutiny on NARA for its process in retrieving classified documents. Republicans blocked Shogan’s nomination from progressing after characterizing her as a partisan progressive. 

Biden re-nominated Shogan to the position in January, just days before the public learned the current president was embroiled in his own classified documents scandal.