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Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley and wife launch a podcast. They say it’s not about politics

Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley is a podcaster now.

On Monday, he launched “This is Living.” The cover, with a calming sky-blue to white gradient, shows the smiling junior senator in a plain white t-shirt, being hugged from behind by his wife, Erin Morrow Hawley.

This is not the version of Josh Hawley who held his fist to the pro-Trump crowd that would later storm the Capitol on January 6. It’s not the brash Josh Hawley who appears in committee meetings calling on officials in the Biden administration to resign.

It’s the wife guy Josh Hawley, the pious Josh Hawley, the Josh Hawley who changes diapers.

The Josh Hawley who calls his wife “babe.”

“This really isn’t a podcast about politics, it’s not a podcast about the law, about the Supreme Court,” Hawley said. “Inevitably those things will pop up because that’s where the Lord has called us. That is the work that we do. But it’s not about that. It’s about our effort as people to go after and to find that life to the full.”

In the first episode the senator and his wife, a constitutional lawyer who clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts, meander around why they wanted to start a podcast about their lives, dip into their personal background, quote scripture and talk about raising their three kids.

The podcast is paid for by his Senate campaign.

Hawley has long been mentioned as a possible candidate for President in 2024, but has been polling toward the bottom of the potential field in early polling. But if the insight into Hawley’s private life and beliefs is an attempt to soften the image of one of the politicians most often associated with the insurrection on January 6, he may face an uphill battle.

The podcast had 3.2 stars on Apple Podcasts as of Thursday afternoon — ticking up slightly from a 2.5 rating on Wednesday evening. Most comments focus less on the podcast and more about Hawley’s role in January 6, using phrases like “seditious little worm” and “traitor.”

Hawley joins several other podcasting politicians. Fellow conservative Ted Cruz has “The Verdict.” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg had a podcast last year (the last episode was December 2020). And former President Barack Obama started one with Bruce Springsteen.