Who can blame him?
Biden knows that some people are irredeemable. Ron Johnson is one of them:
Over his 36 years in the Senate, JOE BIDEN took pride in establishing friendships across the aisle. And now, as president in a hyper-partisan time, he often waxes nostalgic for the old days and states aloud just how much he likes many Republicans, including Minority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL.
But Biden’s love of bipartisanship has its limits.
The president clearly detests some on the opposite side of the aisle. There are those he views as convenient foils, allowing him to draw a distinction between his old GOP pals and the new crop of “MAGA Republicans” who, he often argues, pose a threat to the country.
Biden frequently seizes on Florida Sen. RICK SCOTT’s plan to cut spending, including putting Social Security and Medicare on renew-every-five-year plans, as a cudgel with which to bash the GOP. There is little love lost between the two men.
But Biden holds real antipathy for one Republican above all others: Sen. RON JOHNSON. The president’s distaste is so strong that aides recall him expressing joy at MSNBC host JOE SCARBOROUGH’s frequent description of the Wisconsin senator as having “rocks in his head.”
Biden’s disdain for Johnson was evident during last week’s post-State of the Union stop at a union hall not far outside Madison. Reading off a printout, Biden turned to the audience of hardhats: “By the way, you have Senator…” he said before pausing for a beat. Biden smirked. He cleared his throat as the crowd laughed and then finished calling out Johnson. “Ron Johnson, on Social Security and Medicare, quote, ‘We should transfer everything so we have to consider everything every year.’”
As the crowd booed, Biden shook his head and muttered in agreement. “Come on, man.”
Biden never served in the Senate with Johnson, who was elected in 2010, two years after Biden became vice president. But Biden grew to dislike Johnson in the years that followed. He viewed him as someone who cared mostly about cable hits. And Biden believed Johnson debased himself to prove his loyalty to DONALD TRUMP, according to three people familiar with the president’s thinking who were not authorized to speak publicly about private discussions.
In recent years, Biden’s disdain has only grown.
Though Johnson did not cast a vote against certifying Biden’s win, he backed Trump’s false claims of election fraud and spread doubt about the legitimacy of Biden’s election. He went so far as to task an aide with delivering an alternate — and fake — set of electors to then-Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6, 2021 in a bid to keep Trump in power in 2020. Months later when that news came to light, Johnson claimed to have had only a vague awareness of what the document had been. And two years later, Johnson refused to commit to accepting the results of his own midterm election, until he won. There’s also his unabashed skepticism about Covid-19 vaccines, including a recent focus on, as he put it, “advocating for the vaccine-injured.”
White House Deputy Press Secretary ANDREW BATES seized on Johnson’s mixed messages in an email to reporters last week, noting that the senator had criticized Biden for suggesting Republicans want to ban Medicare, only to describe Medicare as a “Ponzi scheme” in a radio appearance the same day. A person close to the president also noted that Johnson’s often blunt expressions of policy, such as his statement about how he loved outsourcing because it meant cheaper products, often allow Biden to draw sharp contrasts.
More recently, Johnson has zeroed in with particular gusto on HUNTER BIDEN, believing that the business dealings of the president’s son must be investigated and could lead to evidence of wrongdoing by the president himself. That has angered the president, who had privately expressed hope Johnson would lose his reelection bid last fall.
That didn’t happen. And now, the White House is preparing for the two men to clash repeatedly as Wisconsin looms as perhaps the most important swing state on the map.
For his part, Johnson this past week both defended his stance on Social Security and Medicare and claimed that Biden was “compromised” on China because of unproven claims of foreign financial entanglements.
He also didn’t seem to quibble with the idea that he was on Biden’s sh*t list. In fact, he embraced it.
“I would say I’m probably not his favorite senator,” Johnson said. “I think there’s all kinds of personal animus from him toward me. He doesn’t like the truth being told.”Ron Johnson..
Joe is 100% right. Ron Johnson is a cretin. He’s extremely stupid and an asshole on top of it, the worst of all possible worlds. He most certainly is the worst Senator (Rand Paul is a close second) and it’s a crying shame that he got another 6 years.
Here’s an example of just how bad he is. It’s from his testimony to the “weaponization” committee last week:
“COVID has exposed the awesome power that can be misused by government officials. The loss of basic freedoms has been nothing less than breathtaking. Our response to the pandemic has been a miserable failure, a miserable failure: over one million lives lost, the human toll of the economic devastation caused by shutdowns that did not work, the loss of learning and other psychological harms to our children. Federal health officials denied patients early treatment and to this day refuse to acknowledge the extent of significant injuries caused by the COVID vaccines.
“Emails between Anthony Fauci and Francis Collins reveal how they intended to use their awesome government authority to accomplish a ‘devastating published take down’ of scientists who offered a different approach to handling the pandemic. Have emails also revealed Fauci’s attempt to hide his agency’s role in funding dangerous research that might have led to the creation of the deadly coronavirus? We don’t know, because those agencies won’t provide the unredacted documents.
“Federal health agencies have not been honest or transparent. I have written over 50 oversight letters and the vast majority of the questions I have asked have either received an inadequate response or no response at all. I’ve requested information the public has a right to know.
“Doctors who have had the courage and compassion to treat COVID patients using their off-label prescription rights have been vilified, censored, and had their careers destroyed. Other health professionals have noticed, toed the line, and remained silent. Parents, who out of concern for their children, questioned school boards and administrators have been labeled potential domestic terrorists and must now fear scrutiny from the federal law enforcement.
This sick piece of work is still pushing Ivermectin and Hydroxychloraquine. He’s a fucking menace. And we’re stuck with him for a third term.