New Year, Same Terrible Senator: Ron Johnson Kicks Off 2022 With Another Week Of Coverage Highlighting His Lies

Ron Johnson is starting the new year off with a bang — and not in any positive sense of the idiom. Instead, Johnson has picked right up where he ended 2021, introducing a “mind-bogglingly weird anti-vaccine argument” that has doctors and some priests, further condemning his efforts to spread COVID-19 misinformation

(For those just tuning in, Johnson has repeatedly and unapologetically worked to undermine trust in the safe and effective COVID vaccines for the past year, despite acknowledging in December 2020 that doing so “will cause people’s deaths.” You can also find a helpful rundown of Johnson’s other “most controversial” 2021 statements, here.)

If only that were Johnson’s one dangerous lie this week. But alas, on the anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, Johnson made sure to downplay the violence of that day and further spread conspiracy theories about the attack — all while failing to acknowledge that he was one “of Trump’s ringleaders in the plot leading up to the Capitol attack.”

The upshot for 2022: As Johnson prepares to run for reelection, he’s fully burned through any credibility he ever had with Wisconsin voters and “become the Republican Party’s foremost amplifier of conspiracy theories and disinformation.”

Taking heat for (still) lying about the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 Capitol attack:

• USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin Editorial Board: The Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol illustrated the risk of political violence. Voters in Republican districts can help stop it.
• Wisconsin State Journal Editorial Board: “Johnson was one of Trump’s ringleaders in the plot leading up to the Capitol attack. And to this day, Johnson continues to downplay the seriousness of this historic American nightmare.”
• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Wisconsin Democrats are using the anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection to tell voters they can’t trust Republicans [like Ron Johnson] with democracy.”
• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Tammy Baldwin slams GOP for wanting to ‘whitewash’ Jan. 6; Ron Johnson ticked off that Democrats now have anniversary to ‘pound on’

Facing backlash for lying about vaccines:

• WISN-TV: Priests weigh in on Sen. Ron Johnson’s take on COVID-19 vaccine, God
• WTMJ-TV: PolitiFact Wisconsin: Sen. Johnson incorrectly claims unvaccinated people around the world are put into “internment camps”
• CNN: Analysis: What this Republican Senator doesn’t know about Covid-19 is, well, a lot
• Washington Post: Analysis: Ron Johnson somehow isn’t clear on why post-illness immunity is worse than no-illness immunity
• MSNBC: The Beat with Ari Melber: “Senator Johnson himself, well, he took issue with god’s natural remedies when he recommended mouth wash to treat COVID. So that was his idea of a solution.”
• Wonkette: Ron Johnson Creates God In His Own Total Dumbass Image
• HuffPost: Sen. Ron Johnson Draws Ridicule After Mind-Numbing Take On God And Vaccines
• MSNBC: Maddow Blog: Ron Johnson tries to rope God into his bizarre take on vaccines
• Washington Post Opinion: The GOP isn’t even trying to sound coherent anymore
• TPM: Ron John Wonders Why We’re All Trying To Play God By Getting Vaccinated
• The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: “I get it god created our immune systems, but he also created Ron Johnson so he has been known to shank it”

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.