Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., downplayed the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6 on Tuesday, saying the violent attackers “did teach us how you can use a flag pole.”
A staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump, Johnson claimed the extremists who sought to block Congress from certifying President Biden’s election victory were mostly peaceful, and that the attack was no “armed insurrection.”
“Some of the protesters did teach us how you can use a flag pole (and) that kind of stuff as weapons,” Johnson defiantly told a Milwaukee Chamber of Commerce breakfast. “But to call what happened on Jan. 6 an armed insurrection, I just think is not accurate”
Televised Jan. 6 committee hearings over the summer revealed disturbing images captured by Capitol Police body cameras and overhead security of pro-Trump rioters hitting law enforcement with flagpoles, baseball bats, weapons and bear spray during the insurrection.
Johnson, who is locked in a tight reelection contest, falsely suggested the attackers acted in an orderly manner even though the whole world watched on television as the MAGA mob beat police officers and chanted “Hang Mike Pence.”
“You saw the pictures inside the Capitol. I saw them that day,” Johnson said. “The armed insurrectionists stayed inside the rope lines in the Rotunda.”
He also added that “zero” firearms were confiscated by authorities at the Capitol, without mentioning that all the attackers were allowed to leave peacefully and were only arrested days or weeks later.
Johnson, like many Republicans, continues to downplay the insurrection attempt on Jan. 6, 2021, in which Trump was seen on television riling up thousands of his supporters gathered near Capitol Hill. “We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” Trump said in one of the quotes highlighted by Democrats who eventually impeached him for inciting the attack.
After the speech, hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to prevent members of Congress from certifying President Biden as the election’s winner. Four people died during the attack, and five police officers died afterward.
A two-term lawmaker, Johnson holds a narrow lead in polls against Democratic Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes in Wisconsin, which is considered one of the most evenly matched battleground states.
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