Long before his headfirst dive down the rabbit hole, I’ve been chronicling the adventures of the man I’ve often described as the dumbest man in the US Senate. He pulled out all the stops in today’s hearing about January 6th. Honestly, he’s worse than the looniest talk radio host.
Aaron Rupar at Vox followed the fireworks:
Ron Johnson of Wisconsin … used his questioning time during Tuesday’s Senate hearing to read excerpts from a January 14 article published by the Federalist that argues “agents-provocateurs” and “fake Trump protesters” were behind the assault on the Capitol, rather than actual Trump supporters, as was the case.
“I think these were the people that probably planned this,” said Johnson, after reading from the article.
Ron Johnson is using his questioning time during the Capitol security hearing to promote a conspiracy theory that the January 6 insurrectionists weren’t actually Trump supporters, but were “provocateurs” and “fake Trump protesters” pic.twitter.com/t72QkHDbaG— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 23, 2021
But as anybody who has watched videos of the January 6 insurrection can attest, the mob that breached the Capitol in a riot that left five dead waved Trump flags and chanting things like, “We want Trump!”
And the rioters were in Washington, DC, in the first place to attend a “Stop the Steal” rally Trump promoted heavily, before being riled up by Trump in a speech in which he invoked “fighting” more than 20 times just before the unrest at the Capitol began.
Furthermore, as observers of right-wing internet forums took note of in the weeks before January 6, the insurrection was clearly organized online by Trump supporters who weren’t trying to hide what they hoped to achieve.
Finally, many insurrectionists arrested in connection with the riot have cited their support for Trump as the reason they were in Washington, DC, on January 6 in the first place, saying things like “I’m here to see what my President called me to DC for.”
Despite all this evidence, hardcore Trump supporters in Congress have repeatedly tried to shift blame for the insurrection onto others, impugning everyone from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to antifa.
Johnson has been one of the worst offenders in this regard. During a Fox News appearance earlier this month, he suggested Pelosi was somehow responsible for the insurrection because as speaker of the House she didn’t do more to make sure Capitol security was adequate.
Then just two days ago, Johnson was back on Fox News lamenting enhanced security measures at the Capitol, falsely claiming the idea that some Trump supporters are “armed insurrectionists” couldn’t be “further from the truth.” That comment received no pushback from host Maria Bartiromo, but it ignores the reality that the reason the Capitol is militarized in the first place is the January 6 attack by Trump supporters on the legislative branch, which at the time was in the process of certifying Biden’s Electoral College win.
Johnson wasn’t the only person who tried to shift blame during Tuesday’s hearing. Under questioning from Johnson, former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund said he didn’t believe the attack on the Capitol was foreseeable.
“A breach of the Capitol was not something anybody anticipated,” Sund said.
But Sund is wrong. Chatter on right-wing internet forums in the weeks leading up to January 6 made clear that Trump supporters were not only planning to gather in DC but hoped to “storm government buildings” and “kill cops.” (Officer Brian Sicknick died after rioters breached the Capitol.)
There’s more on two of the Big Lie’s most vociferous collaborators, Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz, at the link. It seems pretty clear that even if the insurrectionists had found Pelosi, Pence and McConnell and done their worst, these people would be finding reasons to excuse it. But that’s understandable because they are complicit. If they hadn’t eagerly stroked Trump’s massive ego by pumping up the absurd conspiracy theories around the “stop the steal” nonsense, this might not have happened.