Publishing house denies publishing congressman book that fomented insurrection in Congress

New York – A book that Senator Josh Hawley wishes to publish, who objected to the victory of President-elect Joe Biden and supported unfounded claims that there was electoral fraud, was canceled by publishing house after the insurrection in the Federal Capitol of a mob of supporters of President Donald Trump, a decision the Republican senator called “Orwellian” and has warned he will challenge.

In a statement released Thursday, Simon & Schuster announced that “After witnessing Wednesday’s worrying and lethal uprising in Washington, DC, Simon & Schuster has decided to cancel the publication of Josh Hawley’s next book, ‘The Tyranny of Big Tech.'”

“We didn’t come to this decision lightly,” the company added. “As a publishing house it will always be our mission to amplify a variety of voices and views: at the same time we take seriously our even greater public responsibility as citizens, and we cannot support Senator Hawley after the role it played in what became a dangerous threat to our democracy and freedom. “

Thousands of Trump supporters gathered in Washington on Wednesday to protest formal congressional certification of Biden’s victory, and many ended up breaking into the Capitol and occupying it for hours, delaying the process until Thursday morning. A widely seen photograph, taken before the occupation, shows Hawley raising his fist in solidarity with the crowd.

Hawley has been frequently mentioned as a possible future presidential candidate and his book, scheduled for release in June, aims to be a forum for a popular topic: the undue power of Google, Facebook and other internet giants.

Shortly after the news broke that the publisher had canceled the publication of the book, Hawley tweeted – and directed his comments directly to Simon & Schuster – that he was being unfairly censored and punished: “This could not be further. Orwellian … I was representing my constituents, leading a debate in the full Senate on the integrity of the electorate, which they have now decided to redefine as sedition. “

“Let me be clear, this is not just a dispute over a contract. It is a direct aggression on the First Amendment (constitutional) … I will fight this culture of cancellation with everything I have. See you in court “, he warned.

Simon & Schuster quickly issued another statement: “We are confident that we are acting fully within our contractual rights” in canceling the book.

The company has had numerous clashes with Trump and his supporters in recent years. He canceled a deal with far-right writer and commentator Milo Yiannopoulos and published several anti-Trump “bestsellers,” including his niece Mary Trump’s book “Too Much and Never Enough,” and “The Room Where It Happened “by former National Security Adviser John Bolton.

New York publishing houses have already expressed suspicion of agreeing to publish Trump’s post-presidential memoirs, the text “Crippled America” ​​was published by Simon & Schuster in an edition in 2015, and this week’s events make that it is much less likely that the trustee will reach an agreement with the company. A Simon & Schuster spokesman declined to comment on whether the company would be interested in a new Trump book. Messages left at Penguin Random House, the publishing house of Trump’s hit book “The Art of the Deal,” and HarperCollins Publishers have not been answered yet.