Here & Now

Wisconsin Senator on U.S. Capitol Attack

Frederica Freyberg:

In Washington, Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson received criticism for his statements at a hearing looking at the attack on the U.S. Capitol January 6th. Senator Johnson has previously stated he didn’t think the attack counted as an armed insurrection because so many of the attackers were using flagpoles and sticks instead of guns. At Tuesday’s hearing, Johnson read into the official record a first-person account of the attack by a right-wing writer who claimed some in the crowd of protesters were anti-Trump protesters in disguise.

Ron Johnson:

Although the crowd represented a broad cross-section of Americans, mostly working class by their appearance and manner of speech, some people stood out. A very few didn’t share the jovial, friendly, earnest demeanor of the great majority. Some obviously didn’t fit in and he describes four different describes of people: plain clothes militants, agent provocateurs, fake Trump protesters and then disciplined, uniformed column of attackers. I think these are the people that probably planned this.

Frederica Freyberg:

The author of the article wrote he didn’t see any of the people he suspected of being fake Trump supporters actually causing trouble. But Senator Johnson did not read that part of the account into the record. Johnson was quickly accused of spreading conspiracy theories. Wisconsin’s other U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin tweeted a message after the hearing blaming the Capitol insurrection on Donald Trump saying, “Every member of Congress should tell this truth instead of pushing conspiracy theories.”