Walmart on Wednesday briefly waded into the national controversy over the presidential election before saying the whole thing was a mistake.
On Wednesday, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri announced that he will formally object to the Electoral College vote when Congress meets Jan. 6 to certify the presidential election.
That’s significant because the certification is usually a procedural matter taken up before a joint session of Congress. Only when members of both houses of Congress object does the joint session devolve into two sessions — one in each house — to debate the objections.
Although Hawley’s action does not mean that his objections to the election will prevail, it helps ensure a full airing of objections that day.
Not long after his announcement, Walmart’s Twitter account appeared to rap Hawley across the knuckles.
“Go ahead. Get your 2 hour debate #soreloser,” read the tweet, which has now been removed.
Twitter soon buzzed at the spectacle of America’s retail giant mocking a U.S. senator, linking the Walmart post to its dependence on China and Hawley’s antagonism to communist power.
When The Western Journal sought an explanation, Walmart insisted it was all a mistake.
“The tweet was mistakenly posted by a member of our social media team who intended to publish this comment to their personal account,” Walmart said in a statement.
“We have removed the post and have no intention of commenting on the subject of certifying the electoral college. We apologize to Senator Hawley for this error and any confusion about our position,” the statement said.
But Hawley did not let Walmart off the hook. He took the company to task on Twitter, with a reminder of how many millions of voters turned out for Trump.
“Thanks @Walmart for your insulting condescension. Now that you’ve insulted 75 million Americans, will you at least apologize for using slave labor? Or maybe you’d like to apologize for the pathetic wages you pay your workers as you drive mom and pop stores out of business,” he tweeted.
Democratic nominee Joe Biden has already won sufficient Electoral College votes to be the winner of the Nov. 3 vote.
President Donald Trump’s campaign has insisted that there has been voter fraud in states that include Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin, as well as Pennsylvania.
However, despite numerous claims of voting irregularities, including affidavits alleging fraud sworn to by reported eyewitnesses, no court has yet ruled that widespread fraud materially affected the results of the presidential election.
Hawley announced his plan on Twitter and in a release on his Senate website.
“I cannot vote to certify the electoral college results on January 6 without raising the fact that some states, particularly Pennsylvania, failed to follow their own state election laws,” the statement said.
“And I cannot vote to certify without pointing out the unprecedented effort of mega corporations, including Facebook and Twitter, to interfere in this election, in support of Joe Biden. At the very least, Congress should investigate allegations of voter fraud and adopt measures to secure the integrity of our elections. But Congress has so far failed to act,” Hawley said.
“For these reasons, I will follow the same practice Democrat members of Congress have in years past and object during the certification process on January 6 to raise these critical issues,” Hawley said.