Sen Ron Johnson blames Capital insurrection on ‘fake Trump supporters’, Internet calls him ‘conspiracy theorist’
Senator Ron Johnson claimed on Tuesday, February 23, that left-wing “provocateurs” and “fake” Trump supporters sparked the violence at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. Johnson made the comments as Capitol Hill security chiefs testified before a Senate committee investigating how rioters were able to breach the Capitol last month.
Reportedly, Johnson read a lengthy passage from a piece published in the American conservative online magazine, The Federalist, titled ‘I Saw Provocateurs at the Capitol Riot on Jan. 6’. The report by J Michael Waller claimed, “A few young men wearing Trump or MAGA hats backwards and who did not fit in with the rest of the crowd in terms of their actions and demeanor, whom I presumed to be Antifa or other leftist agitators.”
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Waller also claimed in the report, “A column of organized, disciplined men, wearing similar but not identical camouflage uniforms and black gear, some with helmets and GoPro cameras or wearing subdued Punisher skull patches. All of these cells or groups stood out from the very large crowd by their behavior and overall demeanor. However, they did not all appear at the same time. Not until the very end did it appear there was a prearranged plan to storm the Capitol building, and to manipulate the unsuspecting crowd as cover and as a follow-on force.”
So far, these claims have not been proven at all. On the contrary, many of the rioters who have been charged for the insurrection have said that they are supporters of former President Donald Trump who came to Washington D.C. prepared for a fight and went into the Capitol because they believed Trump was directing them to. The fact that Trump’s speech was seen as a catalyst in the insurrection was also the reason why he was impeached for the second time. This was also the first presidential impeachment in which all majority caucus members voted unanimously for impeachment.
As per reports, Johnson spent most of the time -- allotted to him for questioning witnesses -- by reading passages from the Federalist piece that painted Trump supporters as overwhelmingly peaceful and made unsubstantiated suggestions that left-wing provocateurs were responsible for the attack. “I’d really recommend everyone on the committee read this account,” Johnson said.
On Twitter, Johnson’s comments caused anger. This included many labeling him as a “traitor” and "conspiracy theorist."
Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin has a long list of questions—too long to ask at a hearing with the witnesses present, he says—so instead he’s uhhh reading excerpts from a right wing blog post whose author is not present and sworn.
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) February 23, 2021
Ron Johnson is portraying the Capitol insurrection as “festive”. What a traitor.
— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) February 23, 2021
Ron Johnson spent the Fourth of July in Moscow. He is a January 6th conspiracy theorist and denier. Ron Johnson covers for domestic terrorists because he is one.
— MeidasTouch.com (@MeidasTouch) February 23, 2021
Nope, you did not just imagine Sen. Ron Johnson blaming January 6th on Capitol Police and antifa provocateurs.
— ReallyAmerican.com 🇺🇸 (@ReallyAmerican1) February 23, 2021
That just happened.
2022 will be happening too.
Johnson, in the recent past, has also downplayed the events of the January 6 violence. “This didn’t seem like an armed insurrection to me,” Johnson said during an interview on WISN. “When you hear the word ‘armed,’ don’t you think of firearms? Here are the questions I would have liked to ask: How many firearms were confiscated? How many shots were fired?”
He added in another interview: “To call that an armed insurrection, it was the most pitiful armed insurrection anyone could possibly imagine.” He said he was “literally never afraid” during the riot and suggested that the danger to former Vice President Mike Pence was overblown.