Few Republican Senators are as vile as Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson. Johnson, elected as a Tea Party darling in 2010, did everything he could to sabotage Barack Obama and has shown himself to be one of Donald Trump’s most loyal allies. Now that he’s in a fight for his political life, he’s going deeper into the gutter to survive, throwing out every lie he can think of. Let’s look at the major aspects of Johnson’s worthless, destructive career.
Johnson the Enemy of Women’s Rights (and LGBTQ Rights, Too)
Johnson is militantly “Pro-life” [sic]. He has made no secret of the fact that he wants to see abortion rights wiped out.
On Tuesday [13 September], when Sen. Lindsey Graham introduced a nationwide abortion ban, Johnson was similarly cagey. He wouldn’t say whether he would support the bill, instead declaring that abortion should be decided by “we the people” in each of the 50 states.
“As the senator has said many times he believes this is a profound moral issue and agrees with the Dobbs decision to allow the democratic process to unfold in each state to determine at what point does society have the responsibility to protect life,” his spokesperson Alexa Henning said in a statement reported by the Wisconsin State Journal.
Leave aside for a moment the mixed-up notion that profound moral issues should be decided by a patchwork of state Legislatures — the opposite of the moral argument in the civil rights movement that instead of a state-by-state free-for-all, there ought to be federal protection for fundamental rights.
Johnson’s position on the nationwide abortion ban is crystal clear. Whether he says so or not, he is already in favor of Graham’s effort. How do I know? Johnson cosponsored every version of the same ban Graham has introduced since 2013. Johnson’s name is on the bill six times — in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2021.
Vanity Fair has Johnson’s number:
SENATOR RON JOHNSON TELLS PREGNANT PEOPLE TO SUCK IT UP AND GO OUT OF STATE FOR AN ABORTION IF THEY WANT ONE
Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, the Wisconsin lawmaker, who is up for reelection this year, said he doesn’t expect abortion to come up on the campaign trail because it’s basically a nonissue. “It might be a little messy for some people, but abortion is not going away,” Johnson said, an absolutely bizarre choice of words—not to mention, sentiment—given the history of women bleeding out and dying after unsafe abortions. He blithely added that though he doesn’t expect a 19th-century Wisconsin law banning abortions except to save the mother will go into effect if Roe is reversed, pregnant people can always go to neighboring Illinois if they want to obtain the medical procedure
He’s really bad on contraception, too:
Tea Party-backed Senator Ron Johnson was asked about the affordability of birth control at an Americans for Prosperity summit in Milwaukee. Scott Keyes, a reporter from Think Progress, asked Johnson why he opposed mandatory insurance coverage for birth control pills, since one in three women have reported being unable to afford contraception. At this point, Ron Johnson let the reporter in on a little secret: it's called "The Inter-Net," and it's got all the answers.
See ladies! All ya gotta do is go online and find cheap birth control! So what if it can $200+ to start. Even if you’re poor, you can pony that up, right?
He’s no friend of the LGBTQ community, either. The Human Rights Campaign weighs in:
In recent months, Johnson left heads spinning when he reversed course on the Respect for Marriage Act, indicating that he’d vote against the legislation – which would protect marriage equality for millions of LGBTQ+ and multiracial families – mere weeks after saying he saw “no reason to oppose” the bill.
This latest deplorable action caps a long, regressive track record for the second-term Republican, including supporting abortion restrictions (including efforts to overturn Roe v. Wade), opposing nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people, and spouting hateful rhetoric against transgender people.
Disgusting and appalling. But then again, that pretty much defines Johnson.
Johnson, Sworn Enemy of Social Security and Medicare
From the article referred to above:
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) has suggested that Social Security and Medicare be eliminated as federal entitlement programs, and that they should instead become programs approved by Congress on an annual basis as discretionary spending.
Those who work in the United States pay Social Security and Medicare taxes that go into federal trust funds. Upon retirement, based on a person’s lifetime earnings and other factors, a retiree is eligible to receive monthly Social Security payments. Similarly, Medicare is the federal health insurance program that kicks in for people 65 and older, or for others who have disabilities.
In an interview that aired Tuesday on “The Regular Joe Show” podcast, Johnson, who is seeking a third term in the Senate, lamented that the Social Security and Medicare programs automatically grant benefits to those who meet the qualifications — that is, to those who had been paying into the system over their working life.
Johnson says that Social Security was “set up wrong” and that its funds should have been invested in the stock market. (!) And The Cap Times says this:
But the fact is that in August Johnson complained, "Social Security and Medicare, if you qualify for the entitlement, you just get it no matter what the cost.” His proposed solution: “We ought to turn everything into discretionary spending so it's all evaluated."
Any Wisconsinite who thinks they could trust Johnson to do that evaluation should consider the words of James Roosevelt, the grandson of FDR who for many years led efforts to defend Social Security. “Like Roe v. Wade, many people have denied that the guarantee of Social Security could ever be overturned. But that is exactly what extremist U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson is proposing.”
Stating the facts about Johnson’s long record of threatening Social Security is not a “scare tactic.” It’s an acknowledgment of the scary reality that Ron Johnson, Rick Scott and Republicans like them are, indeed, scheming to wreck Social Security.
AND WATCH THE GREAT BARACK OBAMA LAY IT ON THE LINE ABOUT JOHNSON:
Johnson, Friend of Putin
Over the Independence Day holiday in July 2018, Johnson and seven other Republican lawmakers visited Moscow to talk to Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. Interestingly, there were no Democrats in the delegation. From Roll Call:
GOP lawmakers on the trip with Shelby include Sens. Steve Daines of Montana, John Hoeven of North Dakota, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, John Kennedy of Louisiana, Jerry Moran of Kansas and John Thune of South Dakota.
Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, also joined the trip.
Why were they there? What did they say when they returned? One participant’s reaction in particular was interesting:
One of the Republican senators back from a trip to Moscow is suggesting that Congress went too far in punishing Russia for meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
“I’ve been pretty upfront that the election interference — as serious as that was, and unacceptable — is not the greatest threat to our democracy,” Sen. Ron Johnson said in an interview with the Washington Examiner published over the weekend. “We’ve blown it way out of proportion.”
...Johnson won re-election in 2016, with...Trump on the top of the ticket. He has said that the Senate may have gone too far with mandatory sanctions against a host of Russian entities, [my emphasis] leaving Trump with too little negotiating room on other matters. He also said the sanctions did not appear to be working as intended.
The Russian government was delighted with this, no doubt. They were also undoubtedly delighted at this:
Senate Vote 6 - Fails to Disapprove Deripaska Sanctions
The Deripaska in question is Oleg Deripaska, Russian aluminum king/oligarch/mobster, the same guy that had a relationship with Paul Manafort, Trump’s one-time campaign manager, the same guy who wants to build a new plant in Moscow Mitch’s state. The cloture vote required 60 votes. It failed, falling three votes short, 57-42. Forty-five Democrats and Independent Angus King, along with 11 Republicans voted for cloture. All 42 opposing votes were Republicans, including Johnson. [Note: Bernie Sanders did not vote on the resolution.]
And Russian state TV was ecstatic over this, posting a graphic of its Senate allies, which you can see here. Moscow Mitch is first, of course, but please note the Senator on the bottom row, second from the right. From The National Memo:
As investigative journalist and Russian media analyst Julia Davis first reported on Twitter, the hosts of the popular Russian state TV program “60 Minutes” used Thursday’s episode to highlight the move by Republicans, touting it as the first time since 2014 that the U.S. has lifted sanctions on Russia.
The show’s hosts, Olga Skabeeva and Evgeny Popov, “laugh[ed] out loud about the Democrats not getting enough votes to block the effort,” Davis reported. The pair then “expresse[d] hope that this is just the beginning” of sanctions relief now that the midterms are over and Republicans have maintained their majority in the Senate.
As Davis has noted previously, Russia experts believe the desire for sanctions removal was a key reason why the Kremlin rooted for Republicans to maintain their congressional majorities in the midterm elections last year.
Johnson’s record on Ukraine is lousy as well:
Between 2014—when Russia first invaded and annexed the Crimean peninsula in southern Ukraine—and 2021, Johnson voted against providing aid to Ukraine four different times:
- In Fiscal Year (FY) 2015, he voted against providing $47 million for Ukraine via the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program.
- In FY 2018, Johnson voted against giving Ukraine $95 million via the FMF and $195.5 million via the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI).
- In FY 2020, he voted against giving Ukraine $115 million via the FMF and $256.7 million via the USAI.
- In FY 2021, Johnson was one of six senators to vote against giving Ukraine $115 million in FMF financing and $275 million for the USAI.
This money went to help train and equip the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which has thus far withstood the Russian attack with impressive resilience. Johnson did vote to provide Ukraine with hundreds of millions of dollars in aid via three yes votes for spending bills for Fiscal Year (FY) 2016, 2017, and 2019, but he’s also been a reliable faucet of Russian misinformation tied to Ukraine over the years.
Johnson—who vacationed in Moscow during the July 4th holiday in 2018—also tried to pin the blame for the Russian invasion on the Democrats’ first impeachment of former President Donald Trump. [My emphasis] In 2019, Trump withheld critical aid to Ukraine and tried to pressure Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy to investigate then-candidate Joe Biden. To hear Johnson tell it, this impeachment of Trump over his shakedown of Zelenskyy is why Putin invaded Ukraine.
Johnson, the COVID-Spreading Conspiracy Nut
From the Washington Post:
Seeking reelection this November, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) is doing what politicians on the ballot often do: engaging in conversations with small audiences in an attempt to reach a broader range of constituents.
But a video obtained by the site Heartland Signal demonstrates some ways in which Johnson’s outreach differs from other candidates. For one, he participated in a video conference that included attorney Todd Callender, a fervent anti-vaccination commentator who is part of a lawsuit against the Defense Department. For another, Johnson expressed openness to Callender’s idea that maybe the coronavirus vaccines are a conduit for deliberately giving people AIDS.
Before going any further, it’s important to note that this claim is not only false, it’s bizarre. AIDS is a disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and is not caused by vaccines. The idea that somehow any vaccine can induce AIDS has no basis in reality.
Johnson also fought bitterly against any COVID vaccine mandates. There’s also this breath-taking idiocy, from January of this year:
Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson has made a name for himself as one of the least well-informed elected officials during the nearly two years that the world has been battling the Covid-19 pandemic.
It was Johnson who (in)famously suggested in the spring of 2020 that losing between one and three percent of the American public to Covid-19 was an acceptable outcome in order to keep the economy going. “It’s a risk we accept so we can move about. We don’t shut down our economies because tens of thousands of people die from the common flu,” Johnson said, blithely skating past the fact that if even one percent of Americans died from Covid-19, we would lose more than three million people. (The virus has killed upwards of 830,000 Americans.)
And it was Johnson who suggested – in a virtual town hall late last year – that mouthwash is an effective way to combat Covid-19. “By the way, standard gargle mouthwash, has been proven to kill the coronavirus,” Johnson said, according to a report in Newsweek. “If you get it, you may reduce viral replication. Why not try all these things?”
Johnson, Protector of Pedophiles
A lot of you may not know about this, but I think you should. It’s bothered me for 12 years.
The Green Bay Diocese Pedophilia Scandal, and Ron Johnson’s Role in Burying It
From The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 2010:
Prodded by a Catholic official, the Oshkosh businessman [Johnson] earlier this year jumped into the controversy over legislation aimed at making it easier for victims of childhood sexual abuse to sue their abusers.
Johnson, a Lutheran, sided with Catholic Church leaders in opposing the so-called Child Victims Act before a state Senate committee in January. The bill failed to win approval.
Here was the heart of his testimony:
"I believe it is a valid question to ask whether the employer of a perpetrator should also be severely damaged, or possibly destroyed, in our legitimate desire for justice."
Johnson had little to say about the victims of sexual abuse in his testimony. His was largely a financial concern.
He followed that up with this suggestion.
"This bill could actually have the perverse effect of leading to additional victims of sexual abuse," he argued, "if individuals, recognizing that their organizations are at risk, become less likely to report suspected abuse."
That argument doesn't sit well with victims of pedophile priests.
The specific controversy here involved the Green Bay Diocese. From TPM:
According to the 2004 John Jay Report, commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Diocese of Green Bay received 59 allegations of sexual abuse by 35 diocesan priests during the 52 year period of the inquiry, 1950-2002.
Furthermore, the diocese is currently involved in two lawsuits, which, according to Reilly, is just the sort of potential liability the Church would bring to the attention of the council. “I also would say we have two lawsuits going on and depending on how they’re settled, depending on whether the judge rules in our favor and how the jury rules, this is the potential financial risk that might be out there in the future,” Reilly said. “In the case of the two litigations that we’re involved in right now, I feel very strongly that we are on the correct side of the truth, but I said to the council, I need to make everybody aware that there are two lawsuits coming on so it’s not a surprise. Nobody likes surprises.”
Johnson served on the Finance Council of the Green Bay Diocese from 2003 to 2010. At the time of his testimony, Johnson did not disclose that he served on the Diocese’s Finance Council. His testimony against the Child Victims Act had one overriding purpose: to make it harder to hold sex abusers accountable. The proposed law that Johnson helped defeat would have eliminated the statute of limitations for reporting and prosecuting these horrible crimes.
By way of Mad Dog Pac, I offer this video explaining the situation. (Warning: strong stuff if you’re a victim of sexual abuse.):
Despicable. Loathsome. Disgusting. I don’t know how else to characterize it. Johnson did do a turnabout and demanded reform in the Diocese, but he only did so five weeks before the election he won with 52%.
Summary
In short, Johnson is one of the nastiest, stupidest, most ill-informed, most malicious people in Congress. He has been a zombie-like supporter of the entire despicable MAGA program. He desperately needs to be voted out of office. And we have just the man to do it:
GET OUT THE VOTE WITH THE WISCONSIN DEMOCRATS
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This one is neck and neck. We can WIN THIS ONE! I SAY LET’S GO FOR IT!