Sen. Ron Johnson, Wisconsin Republican, doubled down Tuesday while defending himself from criticism he continues to face for remarks he made about Black Lives Matter and the riots at the U.S. Capitol.
Mr. Johnson denied there was anything racist about saying that he would have been concerned if Black Lives Matter activists had breached the Capitol rather than the mobs of Trump supporters that did.
Discussing the uproar his comment caused last week, Mr. Johnson told The Hill that he found it “pretty shocking” that critics would interpret a “completely innocuous” remark into something racist.
Mr. Johnson similarly wrote in The Wall Street Journal that he was “amazed but not surprised” at the reaction he received in the aftermath of having made the comment during a radio interview Thursday.
“Those who seek political advantage by dividing the nation hurl the worst possible accusations to silence anyone who challenges their left-wing agenda,” Mr. Johnson wrote in an op-ed published Monday.
Mr. Johnson has taken heat from Democrats in the days since he made the original remark during an interview on “The Joe Pags Show” in which he discussed the breach of the Capitol building on Jan. 6.
“I knew that even though those thousands of people that were marching to the Capitol were trying to pressure people like me to vote the way they wanted me to vote, I knew those were people that love this country, that truly respect law enforcement, would never do anything to break the law, and so I wasn’t concerned,” Mr. Johnson told the show’s host, conservative commentator Joe Pagliarulo,
“Now, had the tables been turned — and Joe, this could get me in trouble — had the tables been turned, and President Trump won the election and those were tens of thousands of Black Lives Matter and Antifa protesters, I might have been a little concerned,” Mr. Johnson continued.
Several critics of Mr. Johnson called him out on social media in the days after the interview first aired.
“Being unapologetically racist is not something to be proud of — you should be ashamed,” Rep. Mark Pocan, Wisconsin Democrat, said on Twitter last week.
“They would have hurt you if they got their hands on you,” said Rep. Ted Lieu, California Democrat. “That’s why Senators hid that day. Remember?”
Mr. Johnson reiterated in the op-ed that he “honestly never felt threatened” during the riots on Capitol Hill but “might have been worried” if Mr. Trump lost and “violent leftists” came to Washington.
Buildings in Kenosha, Wisconsin’s fourth-largest city, were destroyed when protests held last year by Black Lives Matter and Antifa, or anti-fascist, activists turned into riots, Mr. Johnson recalled.
“This isn’t about race. It’s about riots,” Mr. Johnson wrote in the op-ed. “The rioters who burned Kenosha weren’t of any one ethnicity; they were united by their radical leftism.”
Citing a report by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, Mr. Johnson said “570 leftist protests became riots last year.” The report says the “vast majority” were nonviolent, however.
The breach of the Capitol building occurred as supporters of Mr. Trump stormed the complex while Congress met to count the Electoral College votes certifying his loss to President Biden.
Five people died in connection with the riot, including a Trump supporter who stormed the building and a Capitol Police officer who confronted the mobs. Numerous police officers were also injured.
More than 300 people currently face charges related to the riot at the Capitol, including dozens of defendants accused of violent crimes such as assaulting law enforcement officers.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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