WASHINGTON Several lawmakers said Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) ought to resign or be expelled from Congress for helping Donald Trump incite the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Hawley and Cruz led the effort on Capitol Hill to throw out the 2020 election, objecting to state results while a mob formed outside the building. Hawley even raised his fist to the group on his way into the House chamber, despite police warnings about possible violence, despite the street fighting in prior days.

After the siege of the Capitol, several senators said Cruz and Hawley failed to uphold their oath of office.

There must be consequences for senators who would foment a violent mob for personal gain, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said shortly after the attack. I call on Senators Hawley and Cruz to resign and accept the responsibility which they so clearly bear.

Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) also said Cruz and Hawley should resign or be expelled an extraordinary thing to say in the relentlessly congenial Senate, though it didnt feel crazy after the Capitol had been ransacked by violent thugs.

But the pair werent pariahs for long, and for most of the rest of the year they went about their business as senators like nothing happened.

You know, I will say one nice thing about the Senate: We do actually manage to get along with each other relatively well, Cruz told HuffPost. Its been my experience that Republicans and Democrats do a pretty good job of engaging with each other as human beings in this institution.

In January, Whitehouse and six of his colleagues filed a formal complaint against Cruz and Hawley with the Senate Ethics Committee, asking the panel to consider recommending the Senate censure or even expel the senators.

When Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley announced they would object to the counting of state-certified electors on January 6, 2021, they amplified claims of election fraud that had resulted in threats of violence against state and local officials around the country, the complaint said. By proceeding with their objections to the electors after the violent attack, Senators Cruz and Hawley lent legitimacy to the mobs cause and made future violence more likely.

The complaint asked the committee to investigate whether the duo upheld the highest moral principles and to country, per the federal code of ethics for government service, and if they engaged in improper conduct reflecting on the Senate, per the Senate ethics manual.