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Jan. 8 (UPI) -- Simon & Schuster announced it will no longer publish an upcoming book by Republican Sen. Josh Hawley following a mob of President Donald Trump's supporters besieging the Capitol building on Wednesday, resulting in five deaths. The company announced its decision to not publish Hawley's The Tyranny of Big Tech in a statement on Thursday.
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"We did not come to this decision lightly. As a publisher it will always be our mission to amplify a variety of voices and viewpoints: at the same time we take seriously our larger public responsibility as citizens, and cannot support Sen. Hawley after his role in what became a dangerous threat to our democracy and freedom," the publishing house said.
Hawley, a senator for Missouri and a Trump supporter, was one of the first and most vocal senators to object to Congress certifying states' electoral votes that show President-elect Joe Biden had won the 2020 presidential election.
On Wednesday while lawmakers in Congress were attempting to certify the electoral votes, the Capitol building was overrun by Trump supporters in opposition, bringing the proceedings to a halt.
A Capitol Police officer who confronted the rioters was severely injured and pronounced dead Thursday night at the hospital while a woman was shot dead by a police officer Wednesday within the building. Three others died on Capitol grounds due to medical emergencies.
In a statement Thursday evening, Hawley described Simon & Schuster's decision to pull his book as "an assault on the first Amendment."
"We'll see you in court," he said.
Following the breach of the Capitol, calls for Hawley to resign came from both sides of the aisle, blaming him for enticing on the mob.
John Danforth, a former GOP senator for Missouri and a mentor to Hawley, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that "supporting Josh and trying so hard to get him elected to the Senate was the worst mistake I ever made in my life."
