On Monday evening, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin went on CNN for an interview about the Republican Party’s continuing inability to productively govern our country. When host Kaitlan Collins asked the senator whether or not one of Donald Trump’s fake electors should resign from his position on the Wisconsin elections commission, Johnson made the bold claim that “Democrat electors have done that repeatedly. Democrats have done the same thing.”
When Collins pressed Johnson to back up these claims, Johnson couldn’t, but promised he would send CNN proof of his claims of election interference by Democrats. After his interview, he posted a response on the draining toilet bowl sound that is social media platform X (formerly Twitter). It was underwhelming to say the least. On Thursday, Collins took two minutes during her show to tell the audience that Johnson had “listed the four examples that you see here, none of which proved his point. Democrats have not repeatedly used alternate slates of electors. None even come close to what Republicans did in 2020.”
She then broke down the one example Johnson cited that has been repeated as a mantra by Trump defenders for a few years: the 1960 election between then-Vice President Richard Nixon and Sen. John F. Kennedy. Collins made sure to explain the major differences between what Trump’s MAGA minions did in 2020 and what Democratic electors in Hawaii did in 1961. She finished up the segment by reminding everyone that Johnson has been implicated in the events of Jan. 6, 2021.
Of course, Senator Ron Johnson's role in this has also come under scrutiny given the text messages showing that his chief of staff was trying to deliver a quote “alternate slates of electors from Michigan and Wisconsin” directly to Vice President Pence on January 6, something that will surely be included in the history books.
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Jennifer Fernandez Ancona from Way to Win joins "The Brief" to talk about how bad Republican messaging has been and what Democrats need to say in 2024 to win.