Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson is very good at one thing: Making comments that are, at best, ill-informed and at worst, racist and/or dangerous.
He’s suggested Speaker Nancy Pelosi was somehow behind the January 6 riot at the US Capitol. He’s said the riot wasn’t actually an “armed insurrection.” He’s suggested that there were professional protesters stirring up the problems that day and that they might have been affiliated with radical leftist groups. He said a year ago that the economy had to fully re-open in spite of the coronavirus. And, he’s insisted that the deaths from the virus are necessary sacrifices to keep the economy up and running.
And late last week, Johnson did it again. Again.
Here’s Johnson on with conservative talk radio host Joe Pags :
“Even though those thousands of people that were marching to the Capitol were trying to pressure people like me to vote the way they wanted me to vote, I knew those were people that love this country, that truly respect law enforcement, would never do anything to break the law, and so I wasn’t concerned…
” … Now, had the tables been turned – Joe, this could get me in trouble – had the tables been turned, and President Trump won the election and those were tens of thousands of Black Lives Matter and Antifa protesters, I might have been a little concerned.”
(Sidebar: If you hear yourself saying “this could get me in trouble,” stop speaking. Immediately. Just close your mouth mid-sentence. Trust me on this.)
Now, what ever could be the difference between the rioters that stormed the Capitol and those who populated the Black Lives Matter protests over the summer? What. Could. It. Be.
It certainly wasn’t the level of violence exhibited by the two groups. Because the US Capitol riot left five people dead and dozens more injured, with images and videos emerging in the aftermath of rioters attacking police officers, a gallows being constructed in front of the Capitol building and people chanting things like “Hang Mike Pence.”
And of course, only one of the two groups actually penetrated one of the most prominent symbols of the democracy in this country, ransacking it in the process.
But Johnson said he “never really felt threatened” even as rioters were pouring into the Capitol because they were “people that love this country” and “that truly respect law enforcement.” (Johnson must have missed all of the footage of rioters attacking the police – both physically and verbally.)
So what could the difference be then? Since it seems that, on every measure, that the riot at the US Capitol was far more dangerous?
Simple: The vast majority of rioters on January 6 were White. The crowds at the Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020 were not predominantly White. That’s it. That’s the difference Johnson is talking about.
He wasn’t worried about being in danger from the demonstrably dangerous group of rioters on January 6 because they, like him, were White. But he would have been worried if it was the (mostly peaceful) demonstrators at the BLM rallies because they were Black.
On Monday, Johnson defended his comments and said he was the real victim: “There is nothing racial about my comments. Nothing whatsoever. This isn’t about race, this is about riots. … The few of us that have pushed back on that, we get mercilessly attacked, I mean I was, I was quite honestly, I wasn’t – I wasn’t surprised, but it’s still pretty shocking that it would take what I consider completely innocuous comment and turn it into, you know, use the race card on me and say there’s some kind of racist comment involved in that there was none.”
That double standard is striking – and informed by racist stereotyping. That it was uttered by a sitting US senator is shameful.