Ron Johnson defends US Capitol siege rioters, says 'they love this country'

Republican US Senator Ron Johnson on March 15 denied that he made racist comments last week when he said he wasn’t concerned about pro-Trump insurrectionists at the Capitol in January but would have been worried if they were Black Lives, Matter protesters. Johnson’s comments had drawn criticism from Democrats and others who said that he was making a racist statement. However, the Republican Senator from Wisconsin said that there is “no racism involved”. 

In an interview with WISN-AM, Johnson said, “It has nothing to do with race. It has everything to do with riots. I completely did not anticipate that anybody could interpret what I said as racist. It’s not”. He also said that of those who stormed the Capitol: “I knew those were people who love this country, that truly respect law enforcement, would never do anything to break the law, so I wasn’t concerned”. 

Further, while referring to far-left protesters, Johnson added, “Now, had the tables been turned, and Joe — this is going to get me in trouble — had the tables been turned and President Trump won the election and tens of thousands of Black Lives Matter and antifa, I might have been a little concerned. Remember those leftist activists, those protesters, that some of them turned into riots, a lot of them are white. So there’s no racism involved in this at all”. 

Capitol attack 

The Republican Senator said that liberals want to push a narrative that everyone who voted for Trump is an insurrectionist or domestic terrorist. However, he also added that the summer demonstrations over racial justice resulted in more damage and people killed than the insurrection at the Capitol. Johnson even cited 25 deaths being tied to BLM protests. 

On January 6, hundreds of Donald Trump supporters broke into the Capitol Hill building while a joint Congressional session was underway to certify President Joe Biden's win. At least five people died during the insurrection, including a police officer. The crowd was unhappy with the election results and the certification of Joe Biden as the next US President because they felt the election was rigged in favour of Democrats after being fed misinformation by Trump and his aides. 

(Image: AP)