Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) Said in an interview with The Joe Pags that he did not feel threatened during the January 6 Capitol riots, but if Black Lives Matter protesters or members or Antifa invaded Congress instead Trump supporters, he would have been “a little worried”.
Why does it matter: Johnson, who promoted false allegations of widespread electoral fraud after the 2020 presidential election, has repeatedly sought to minimize the severity of the riot, which left five people dead.
What are they saying “Even if these thousands of people were marching on Capitol Hill trying to pressure people like me to vote the way they wanted me to vote, I knew that these were people who love this country, who truly respect law enforcement, would never do anything to break the law, so I wasn’t worried, “Johnson said on Thursday on the radio show.
- “Now, if the table had changed – Joe, it could get me in trouble – if the table had changed, and President Trump won the election and those were tens of thousands of Black Lives Matter and Antifa protesters, I could have been a little worried. “
Yes but: Hundreds of people who marched on January 6 were arrested and charged with their actions during the insurrection.
Johnson said the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel made the comment because of protests over the past summer that followed George Floyd’s death while in the custody of a Minneapolis police officer.
- “That’s why I would have been more concerned,” Johnson said in a statement to the Journal Sentinel, adding that 25 people died during the Black Lives Matter demonstrations about Floyd’s death.
- The non-profit organization Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project found that of the 25 people whose deaths were related to protests or political unrest last summer, nine were BLM protesters and two were conservatives killed after pro-Trump rallies.
The big picture: Johnson said last month that the riot “did not look like an armed uprising to me”, although the Justice Department is accusing at least 14 people of bringing deadly weapons to Capitol grounds.
- The Capitol Police also recovered a dozen guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition, although it is not known how many guns were brought to the Capitol, according to an NBC News report.