Harmless grandparents arrested after January 6

Lina Portman3 weeks ago

1 2 minutes read

Common sense suggests that 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 January 6 melee was a failure in American history and those facing the worst are mostly innocent elderly people who randomly happened to be in Washington DC. The lawmaker appeared on Fox Business angry at federal authorities. on the lookout for Jan. 6 rioters — claiming “grandmas and grandmas” are getting the SWAT treatment.

“We had this massive manhunt, this massive manhunt on the grandmothers and grandfathers who show up on January 6, never enter the Capitol, just happen to be in Washington, D.C. – they take agents, SWAT raids to arrest people who are not strangers. threat to them, whatever it may be,” the Republican senator said with a straight face.

Johnson then insisted that the FBI — in many ways the most conservative institution in the federal government, led by Donald Trump's hand-picked director — “has become completely partisan” against Republicans.

At this point, we could spend a few sentences explaining that law enforcement did not send SWAT teams after innocent people who “just happened to” be in the nation's capital on January 6, 2021. We could Also note how bizarre it is to see prominent Republican officials constantly complaining about the FBI.

But at this point, it's also worth taking a step back and acknowledging the fact that Johnson really should choose another topic to continue talking about.

The Wisconsin Republican falsely told the public that the Jan. 6 rioters were unarmed. He 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 praised the patriotism of the rioters.

As Charles Sykes wrote for MSNBC last week, Johnson is also up to his ears in the fake voter conspiracy, and as NOTUS reported today, the far-right senator has also jumped in to defend lawyer Jim Troupis, one of the alleged ringleaders of the legal party. a questionable fake voter scheme in his home state – even after Troupis was indicted.

Given the circumstances, wouldn't Johnson be better off sticking to weird rhetoric on Covid and avoiding the January 6 comments?

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” editor-in-chief of MaddowBlog and a political contributor to MSNBC. He is also the bestselling author of “The Impostors: How Republicans Quit Governing and Seized American Politics.”