Shortly after Donald Trump grudgingly left the White House following his 2020 defeat, he was effectively banned from most major social media platforms and made few television appearances. With this in mind, The New York Times described Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson as Trump’s successor as the Republican Party’s “foremost amplifier of conspiracy theories and disinformation.”
The senator has seemed a little too eager to prove his critics right, peddling bizarre and easily discredited nonsense about Covid-19. And the Jan. 6 attack. And vaccines. And climate change. And the 2020 presidential election. And the 2024 presidential election.
It’s apparently time to add the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to the list. Mediaite noted:
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) suggested Monday that the US government may have played a role in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks during an interview with MAGA influencer Benny Johnson on The Benny Show.
Though it seemed difficult to believe, after the far-right host asked the Wisconsin Republican what he wants to know about 9/11, Johnson said, “Well, start with Building 7,” adding that he believes there was “a controlled demolition” at the World Trade Center.
He went on to say, “Who ordered the removal and the destruction of all that evidence, totally contrary to any other firefighting investigation procedures? I mean, who ordered that? Who was in charge? I think there’s some basic information. Where’s all the documentation from this investigation? There are a host of questions that I want — and I will be asking, quite honestly, now that my eyes have been opened up.”
He did not appear to be kidding.
jeez louise — Sen. Ron Johnson and Benny Johnson suggest 9/11 was an inside job and Johnson says he wants to hold hearings
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-04-21T16:14:46.920Z
Johnson claimed he’s been in touch with former Rep. Curt Weldon about this (the Pennsylvania Republican talked to Tucker Carlson last week about his theories), and when the host asked whether the public might see hearings on the subject, Johnson replied, “I think so,” adding, “Hopefully, now with this administration, we can find out what is being covered up.”
At this point, it’s probably worth reminding readers that, in the recent past, Senate Republicans thought it’d be a good idea to put Johnson in charge of the Senate Homeland Security Committee for six years. Larry Glickman, a historian at Cornell University, noted that it’s “incredible” that a sitting senator “can say something like this with every expectation that such comments will not be grounds for bipartisan calls for his immediate resignation or removal from office.” Ahead of his 2022 re-election campaign, the editorial board of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said Johnson was “unfit” for office and called him “the most irresponsible representative of Wisconsin citizens since the infamous Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy in the 1950s.” Four years later, he’s vastly worse. There was a time in the recent past when being a 9/11 truther would’ve been seen as disqualifying for a U.S. senator. Johnson appears to know that this time is apparently over.
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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