He will say anything to get re-elected. Watch what he does, not what he says. Right now he's just trying to tamp down his unfavorables.
Top headline: American Independent
Johnson disapproval rating: Marquette Law School polls
Bottom headline: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
6/20/2022 update starts here
He's the Senate's leading conspiracy theorist.
Headline: Washington Post, 6/28/2022
To be sure, there is zero factual basis for speculating that the Republican from Wisconsin, a.k.a. “the Senate’s leading conspiracy theorist,” has been indulging, much less overindulging, in the deworming medication, which, in too-high doses, has been known to cause “confusion.” Yet, you needn’t be Alex Jones to observe that Johnson — vaccine skeptic, covid junk scientist, ivermectin (and hydroxychloroquine!) champion, election denier, insurrection apologist and Russian propaganda promoter — has been exhibiting acute confusion over his role in promoting fake electors on Jan. 6, 2021.
6/28/2022 update starts here.
He's a Trump toady and serial liar.
Headline: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 6/28/2022
First, Ron Johnson denied he knew about an offer from his top aide to deliver phony electoral votes for Donald Trump — denied he had anything to do with it. The next day, he said Trump's lawyer in Wisconsin asked him to deliver a document regarding "Wisconsin electors" to Vice President Mike Pence but said he didn't know what that meant.
The more we learn about the role Wisconsin’s senior senator played in the days leading up to the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, the more things don’t add up.
And the more it looks like Johnson or his team may have aided a Trump administration conspiracy to overturn the lawful election of Joe Biden.
A top Pence aide says he has no reason to believe Johnson was involved directly in an attempt to pass fake electors to Pence.
6/26/2022 update starts here
This Wisconsin State Journal editorial headline tells you all need to now.
6/23/2022 update starts here
He can't get his stories straight.
Bottom headline: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
6/22/2022 update starts here
He's a Trump lackey and beholden to his drooling base.
Headline: Washington Post, 6/21/2022
Johnson met with Wisconsin lawmakers later in 2021 and talked about dismantling the state’s bipartisan elections commission and having the GOP-controlled Legislature take over presidential and federal elections. [emphasis added]
6/21/2022 update starts here
He's an insurrectionist.
Headline: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 6/21/2022
Johnson's mouthpiece denies her boss had any involvement or 'foreknowledge' of the list of fake electors.
The question remains: Why did Johnson's office initiate the call?
Minutes before Congress was set to begin certification of the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021, an aide for U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson told former Vice President Mike Pence's staff that Johnson wanted to hand-deliver to Pence the fake elector votes from Wisconsin and Michigan. [emphasis added]
"Johnson needs to hand something to VPOTUS please advise," Johnson aide Sean Riley said in a text message to Pence staffer Chris Hodgson at 12:37 p.m. on Jan. 6, according to evidence presented Tuesday by the House select committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
"What is it?" Hodgson, a former legislative affairs director for Pence, replied.
"Alternate slate of electors for MI and WI because archivist didn't receive them," Riley wrote back.
Hodgson then told Riley: "Do not give that to him."
6/8/2022 update starts here
When it comes to babble, RoJo is a master craftsman.
Headline and photo: PoliticsUSA, 6/8/2022
Republicans are so afraid of confronting the problem of gun violence that Ron Johnson tried to change the subject to Hunter Biden instead of giving a serious answer.
Hunter Biden is 52 years old. He has nothing to do with the Uvalde mass shooting or gun violence. Hunter Biden has nothing to do with Uvalde. Hunter Biden is not an elected official. Hunter Biden has not been made a senior White House adviser by his dad, like Ivanka Trump.
President Biden’s son has nothing to do with anything, but Ron Johnson is running for reelection after breaking his term limit pledge, so he is going scream Hunter Biden’s name anytime he is asked a difficult question.Apparently, that's the entire GOP 2022 campaign strategy.
Headline: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 5/25/2022
But the Oshkosh Republican gave no indication if his long opposition to universal background checks for firearm sales had wavered in any way, silently walking away from a CNN reporter in Washington, D.C., when questioned about the issue.
During a speech on the Senate floor, Johnson made his push for The Luke and Alex School Safety Act, which would require the Department of Homeland Security to collect feedback and data on best practices for "improving the health, safety and welfare of individuals in school settings."
5/6/2022 update, "Ron Johnson opens mouth, embarrasses Wisconsin, again and again", starts here.
Headline: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 5/5/2022
Patrick Remington, an emeritus professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, severely criticized Johnson and called his persistent questioning of medical science irresponsible.
"If he had a medical license these would be grounds for malpractice," said Remington, a former epidemiologist for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "But since he's not trained in medicine, he should stay in his lane and focus on things he knows about."
5/4/2022 update starts here
Wisconsin State Journal, 5/4/2022
Synapses snapping like popcorn.
“Let me challenge you there. That’s way down the road,” Johnson replied. “I mean, you gotta do one step at a time. Everything you say may be true, OK, but right now the public views the vaccines as largely safe and effective, that vaccine injuries are rare and mild. That’s the narrative, that’s what the vast majority of the public accepts. So until we get a larger percentage of the population with their eyes open to ‘woah, these vaccine injuries are real, why?’ You know, it’s gotta be step by step. You can’t leap to crimes against humanity. You can’t leap to another Nuremberg trial.”
The AIDS claim is false, according to independent fact-checkers
Sounds like a dog whistle to me, this nonsense coming from a member of the homophobic, anti-science GOP.
3/9/2022 post starts here.
Washington Post op-ed columnist Jennifer Rubin sums it up and offers a silver lining.
Washington Post, 3/8/2022
And now Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) — purveyor of some of the most egregious coronavirus disinformation, racist rhetoric and Russia propaganda — has confessed that Republicans still want to repeal the Affordable Care Act. (Yes, they did try it when they had control of both houses and the White House, but John McCain gave the thumbs down on that unpopular idea.) To millions of Americans who have benefited from subsidized health insurance premiums, Johnson’s message amounts to: Tough luck. [emphasis added]
1/30/2022 update starts here
This one deserves a "pants on fire' rating.
PolitiFact, 1@82021
New York Times, 1/28/2022
Stories about professional athletes dying during soccer matches and basketball games after getting the jab have been a recurring conspiracy theory since Covid-19 vaccines were introduced. On social media, users share links to local news reports about amateur athletes who died during games or while jogging. The articles rarely state whether someone was vaccinated or not and are usually published before the cause of death is determined. But these deaths, among otherwise healthy people, have gripped anti-vaccine communities and raised concerns about vaccine risks.
1/28/2022 update starts here
Mediaite, 1/28/2022
CNN co-host Brianna Keilar slammed Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) over making a falsehood about the Covid vaccine.
“So there’s a new Covid lie that is making the right-wing media rounds and now a U.S. senator is spreading it,” she said on Friday’s New Day. “On Wednesday, Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson said this.”\
New Day then played a soundbite of Johnson saying on The Charlie Kirk Show, “We’ve heard story after story. I mean, all these athletes dropping dead on the field. But we’re supposed to ignore that. Nothing happening here. Nothing to see. This is a travesty. This is a scandal.”
1/27/2022 update starts here
Hill Reporter, 1/26/2022
Reporters like to put microphones in front of Ron Johnson as the Wisconsin senator is usually good for a juicy soundbite. The soundbites, however, are generally pretty embarrassing. Johnson lacks any idea of nuance, so he lays the lack of empathy in the GOP bare.
That was the case today when the Wisconsin senator was asked about his opposition to Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan. According to Johnson, people shouldn’t have children if they can’t afford healthcare.
The GOP lawmaker told News 8000, “People decide to have families and become parents. That’s something they need to consider when they make that choice. I’ve never really felt it was society’s responsibility to take care of other people’s children.” [emphasis added]
1/24/2022 update starts here
With a pants-on-fire whopper like this remark, you have to think Johnson's internal polling shows him trailing badly in his quest for a third term in the U.S. Senate.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 1/23/2022
In an interview that aired Sunday on WISN-TV's "UpFront," Johnson said: "The Kenosha riots should have ended after one night. But it didn't because Governor Evers and Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes actually incited the rioters and refused to provide the type of manpower to quell the riots."
Evers campaign spokesman Sam Roecker fired back that Johnson and Wisconsin Republicans "are spreading pants-on-fire lies about Kenosha and other tragedies to try to score political points and divide our state."
Original 1/18/2022 post starts here
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 1/17/2022
If U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson made a New Year's resolution to take a more measured approach when discussing public policy, it didn't take him long to break it.
Because the state's most polarizing politician is already back to offering his often wild and controversial take on things in 2022.
Johnson — who last year advised using mouthwash to combat COVID-19 and labeled Social Security a Ponzi scheme — has already roped God into his bizarre take on vaccines and again questioned the seriousness of last year's Capitol riot.
Now he's taking on a new topic: out-of-wedlock births.
And who's to blame for the rate of unmarried childbearing in the U.S.? Former President Lyndon Baines Johnson, the architect of the Great Society.
- rise in cohabitation
- more permissive sexual mores
- easier divorce laws
- drop in manufacturing jobs for males without college degrees
- greater financial independence for women
And that's just for starters.
Moreover, it's a worldwide demographic trend.
You can't pin the blame on LBJ and the Great Society. (The U.S., by the way, ranks 23rd on this chart.)
And yes, RoJo is serving up a racist trope here. Expect much more along the same line between now and November.
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