Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) speaks during a Senate hearing this month about the January 6 attack on the Capitol.Greg Nash/AP
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said he didn’t feel threatened on January 6 because the rioters who committed any number of crimes while storming the Capitol “would never do anything to break the law.” Johnson added that he would have been concerned if the rioters had been affiliated with Black Lives Matter or antifa. More than 300 people have been charged in the attack.
Johnson’s remarks came during a Thursday appearance on the Joe Pags Show, a right-wing radio program hosted by Joe Pagliarulo. “Even though those thousands of people that were marching to the Capitol were trying to pressure people like me to vote the way they wanted me to vote, I knew those were people that love this country, that truly respect law enforcement, would never do anything to break the law, and so I wasn’t concerned,” Johnson said.
Blatant racism from @RonJohnsonWI here. He says he wasn’t worried on 1/6 because the majority-white insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol “love this country,” but says if they were Black Lives Matter protestors he would’ve been concerned for his safety. #WISen pic.twitter.com/V3gm4cLw8v
— American Bridge 21st Century (@American_Bridge) March 12, 2021
Johnson continued, “Now had the tables been turned—now, Joe, this will get me in trouble—had the tables been turned and President Trump won the election and those were tens of thousands of Black Lives Matter and antifa protesters, I might have been a little concerned.”
One police officer was killed and 140 officers were injured during the attack on the Capitol. Rep. Mark Pocan, a fellow Wisconsinite, called Johnson’s remarks “seriously embarrassing to our state” in a Saturday tweet. “We’ve moved from just plain old fringe, extremist rants to fringe extremist and racist rants,” Pocan wrote.
