Common sense suggests Sen. Ron Johnson should stop saying weird things about the Jan. 6 attack, but as Raw Story noted, the Wisconsin Republican apparently can’t help himself.
For Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) the Jan. 6 melee was a blip in American history and the ones facing the worst of it are mostly innocent elderly folks who were randomly in Washington D.C. The lawmaker appeared on Fox Business fuming over federal authorities prowling for January 6 rioters — claiming “grandmas and grandmas” are enduring SWAT treatment.
“We’ve had this massive dragnet, this massive manhunt for grandmas and grandpas that show up on January 6, never enter the Capitol, just happened to be in Washington, D.C. — they are taking agents, SWAT raids to arrest people that are no threat to them whatsoever,” the GOP senator claimed with a straight face.
Sen. Ron Johnson on January 6 insurrectionists who have been convicted of crimes: "Grandmas and grandpas that showed up on January 6, never entered the Capitol. Just happened to be in Washington DC." pic.twitter.com/bpc7NfGGkK
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 12, 2024
Johnson went on to insist that the FBI — by most measures, the most politically conservative institution in the federal government, run by Donald Trump’s handpicked director — “has become completely partisan” against Republicans.
At this point, we could spend a few sentences explaining that law enforcement hasn’t sent SWAT teams after innocent people who “just happened to be” in the nation’s capital on Jan. 6, 2021. We could similarly note how bizarre it is to see prominent GOP officials whine incessantly about the FBI.
But at this point, it’s also worth taking a step back and acknowledging that Johnson really ought to pick a different topic to keep talking about. The Wisconsin Republican has falsely told the public that Jan. 6 rioters were unarmed. He’s peddled the ridiculous idea that the pro-Trump forces that launched the attack on the Capitol were secretly made up of “fake Trump protesters.” He’s praised the rioters’ patriotism. As Charles Sykes wrote for MSNBC last week, Johnson is also up to his ears in the fake electors plot; and as NOTUS reported today, the far-right senator has also rushed to defend attorney Jim Troupis, one of the alleged ringleaders of the legally dubious fake electors scheme in his home state — even after Troupis was indicted. Given the circumstances, wouldn’t Johnson be better off sticking to weird rhetoric about Covid and steering clear of Jan. 6 comments?
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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