Senator Ron Johnson is facing well-deserved scrutiny after claiming yesterday that the January 6th assault on the U.S. Capitol “didn’t seem like an armed insurrection.” Johnson made the wildly inaccurate and disqualifying comments in a conservative talk radio interview where he denied reality and questioned whether or not the violent mob attack that left multiple people dead, including a U.S. Capitol Police officer, qualified as an armed insurrection.
Johnson received swift condemnation for his dangerous remarks. Nonpartisan fact-checker PolitiFact rated his claim “Pants on Fire” for being “ridiculous revisionist history,” and numerous local and national news outlets refuted Johnson, noting that “in court filings, law enforcement officials said they found some insurrectionists with guns and bombs either on their person, left outside or in their vehicles.” The facts are clear and not up for debate: we “can identify accounts of numerous weapons found in and around the Capitol, brought there in some cases by people who saw themselves as soldiers in a war… It was an armed insurrection.”
Johnson is already in jeopardy for his excessive “fealty to Trump” after consistently embracing the toxic former president and “using his former role as a committee chairman to air unproven and potentially harmful claims about COVID-19 and the presidential election.” Local Republican allies view his baseless claims as a major liability with suburban voters, and one local GOP recently chair admitted that Johnson “is at risk of losing moderate voters critical to winning.” New polling released today found that Johnson starts the 2022 cycle as “the most unpopular Republican among the broader electorate who is up for re-election next year.”
Read more on Senator Johnson’s “Pants on Fire” claim:
PolitiFact: Yes, Jan. 6 Capitol assault was an “armed insurrection”
Associated Press: Wisconsin GOP senator downplays attack on U.S. Capitol
Wisconsin State Journal: Ron Johnson: ‘This didn’t seem like an armed insurrection to me’
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Ron Johnson on Jan. 6 Capitol attack: ‘This didn’t seem like an armed insurrection to me’
Washington Post: Sen. Ron Johnson plays down Capitol riots: ‘This didn’t seem like an armed insurrection to me’
The Daily Beast: Sen. Ron Johnson Tries to Downplay Capitol Riot: It Was Just a Bunch of Idiots
Forbes: Sen. Ron Johnson On Capitol Riot: ‘This Didn’t Seem Like An Armed Insurrection To Me’
Newsweek: Ron Johnson Bashes McConnell’s Rebuke of Trump, Says Riot ‘Didn’t Seem Like Armed Insurrection’
The Hill: Ron Johnson says Capitol attack ‘didn’t seem like an armed insurrection’
MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski: “Incredibly stupid”
MSNBC’s Brian Williams: “Unbelievable explanation from Ron Johnson, which we’ve had translated from the original Russian, of course.”
Cook Political Report’s Jessica Taylor: “Just a reminder that Ron Johnson is the only Republican senator up for re-election next year in a a state Biden won #WISen”
Washington Post’s Dan Zak: “The gaslighting intensifies. Sen. Ron Johnson is all over Wisconsin radio questioning whether an armed insurrection even occurred.”
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