GOP Sen. Ron Johnson appeared to downplay the deadly Capitol riot days after he voted to acquit former President Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial.
The Wisconsin senator claimed the events on Jan. 6 “didn’t seem like an armed insurrection to me.”
In early January, a large group of Trump supporters came to Washington, D.C., for a rally supporting Trump. Following the rally, thousands descended upon the Capitol to voice their discontent with the certification of the election for President Biden, which occurred the same day.
Johnson made the comment during an interview with WISN-AM with talk radio show host Jay Weber.
“I mean ‘armed,’ when you hear ‘armed,’ don’t you think of firearms? Here’s the questions I would have liked to ask,” he said. “How many firearms were confiscated? How many shots were fired? I’m only aware of one, and I’ll defend that law enforcement officer for taking that shot. It was a tragedy, OK? But I think there was only one.”
A week after the deadly siege at the Capitol, Trump was impeached for “incitement of insurrection.”
House Democrats who presented the impeachment case that ultimately resulted in Trump’s acquittal attempted to make the case that the former president spurred the violence that left seven people dead — four civilians and three Capitol Police officers. According to the House managers, the Jan. 6 rally was not only a call to do whatever was necessary to preserve Trump’s power but was the latest step in an organized campaign designed to convince his supporters that Biden would be an illegitimate president who needed to be stopped.
Michael Sherwin, acting U.S. attorney for the nation’s capital, previously said that 400 subject case files have been opened, and there are more than 150 cases with federal charges related to the riot. Some people charged had ties to militias and reportedly brought weapons to the Capitol.
Three members of the Oath Keepers, a right-wing militia group, Jessica Watkins, Thomas Edward Caldwell, and Donovan Crowl, have all been arrested for their role in the attack.
According to a recent Justice Department filing, they were part of “a troop of camouflaged-clad individuals, many of whom were also wearing combat boots, military grade helmets, and tactical vests emblazoned with Oath Keepers patches, began to assertively and methodically make their way through the crowd and up the steps” of the Capitol and that “the crowd engaged in several rounds of tug of war with law enforcement, yanking open the doors, only to have law enforcement pull them shut again, until finally breaking through.”
Pipe bombs were also planted outside the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee headquarters the night before the Capitol riot. Law enforcement officials have not announced a suspect.
Johnson, a staunch supporter of Trump during his time in office, has faced criticism for his comments about the Capitol siege.
Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson, a Democrat who is running for Johnson’s seat in 2022, denounced the comments.
“They chanted ‘Hang Mike Pence!’ Five people died, Ron,” Nelson tweeted. “Are you that craven & loyal to Donald Trump that you can’t recognize that?”
Johnson previously said he intended to serve only two terms in Congress, which he will complete in 2022. He has yet to announce whether he’ll run for a third term, pursue a different elected position, or leave politics altogether.
