In an incisive new editorial, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel calls for the resignation of Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) in the wake of his continued allegiance to the Trumpist ideals that led to the Capitol rioting on January 6. Acknowledging that he no doubt won’t personally fulfill their hope for his departure and actually resign, the paper elaborates that opponents should challenge Johnson in the upcoming Senate election in 2022.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Editorial Board: Enough is enough, Wisconsin. Ron Johnson must go.
"Ron Johnson's whitewash of the U.S. Capitol riot shows why Wisconsin's senior senator has to go."https://t.co/8H7HhzqoZD
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 20, 2021
Amazingly, Johnson has wavered on even acknowledging the foundational seriousness of what happened at the Capitol last month! In a recent talk radio appearance, Johnson said that the Capitol rioting “didn’t seem like an armed insurrection to me.” Multiple deaths are connected to the rioting, and Trump’s supporters swarmed the building, searching for top leaders like then-Vice President Mike Pence, who they openly hoped to execute. Meanwhile, Johnson’s response could be summed up by: Eh, no biggie.
As the Journal Sentinel also notes, Johnson “helped perpetuate the myth that voter fraud cost the former president the election.” To that end, he even held a Senate hearing in his role as then-chairman of the chamber’s Homeland Security Committee, openly giving credence to the imagined possibility that a nationwide election-rigging scheme was responsible for Biden’s victory. No court anywhere in the country ever even partially accepted this idea, but Johnson continued.
As the paper put it, “Johnson was willing to throw out the legally cast votes of millions of Americans. He was willing to throw away democracy — government of the people, by the people, for the people — to serve Donald Trump.” They added as follows:
‘Johnson must go. It’s obvious now that he won’t do the honorable thing and resign after violating his oath to support and defend the Constitution… The only way to end this madness and to get back to a government that serves its citizens instead of special interests is to vote out politicians like Johnson… and replace them with people of high character who will defend government of the people, by the people, for the people, regardless of party… Let’s throw these featherweights out of office, Wisconsin, so no one is ever tempted to follow their despicable path again.’
Johnson is not the only Senator who’s faced steep criticism recently. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) have also faced calls for their resignation after helping give credence to the lie that the 2020 election was rigged, which the Capitol rioters used as their explicit pretense.
