Today the official Walmart Twitter account took a stand against Sen. Josh Hawley for his decision to join the Electoral College challenge planned by Rep. Mo Brooks, another ally of President Donald Trump. Hawley responded by slamming the retail giant for using “slave labor” and driving American small businesses to bankruptcy.
After Hawley publicly released his statement intending to back Brooks’ challenge in the Senate, becoming the first U.S. Senator to sign on to the effort, the Walmart Twitter account replied, “Go ahead. Get your 2 hour debate. #Soreloser.”
This almost instantly resulted in both conservative backlash and praise from the left, as noted by Media Right News, who suddenly became allied with the corporate giant that calls itself the “largest retailer in the world,” with over 1.5 million employees in the United States. Walmart is also the single largest employer on the Fortune 500.
Full screen capture …for a few moments I was like woke @Walmart ? pic.twitter.com/9cdwDYdJmB
— File411 (@File411) December 30, 2020
Its been up for 10 minutes, I have gained some respect for Walmart today pic.twitter.com/NXE99WcElc
— Fly Ball (@flyballtosecond) December 30, 2020
Hawley issued a response on Twitter, blasting the Walmart corporate Twitter account.
“Thanks @Walmart for your insulting condescension,” wrote Hawley. “Now that you’ve insulted 75 million Americans, will you at least apologize for using slave labor?”
In a subsequent tweet he added, “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.”
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
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) December 30, 2020
The tweet remained on the platform, according to reports, for over 10 minutes before it was eventually deleted.
National File attempted to call the corporate line for media inquiries at Walmart and was greeted by an answering machine that instructed us to contact them online. National File then contacted Walmart using their preferred process, and attempted to contact the company on social media.
After publishing this article, Walmart told National File that the tweet was sent in error by an individual with access to the corporate account who intended to post it to their personal Twitter account. They also apologized to Hawley for the tweet, and indicated that the company will not weigh in on the Electoral Colleg.e
This article was updated to include a statement from Sen. Josh Hawley and a statement provided to National File by Walmart.