Daniel Bice|Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
It was the year of U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, unleashed.
For most of the past decade, the Wisconsin Republican has been a loyal political soldier, one more conservative multimillionaire willing to add his vote to the GOP tally.
In those years, Johnson had his priorities. Early on, he toted around charts documenting the federal government's growing debt, and then he took upsuch issues as the opioid abuse at the Tomah VA as chairman of a Senate oversight committee.
But this year was different.
Johnson beganairing his opinions on a wide range of issues — questioning everything from COVID-19 vaccines to the Jan. 6 insurrection and the reality of climate change.Andhe kept doing it. Before long, his wordsbecamea regular feature on influentialconservative news sites andlate-night TV shows.
The result: today he is the most polarizingfigure in Wisconsin politics. Conservatives laudhim, and liberals use his incendiary wordsto raise campaign cash.
So as we wait for Johnson to decide if he's going to break his earlier vow and run for a third term— don't be surprised if he does it and does it soon— let's revisit some of his most potent quotes from 2021.
1. QuestioningCOVID-19 vaccinations.
"We all hoped and prayed the vaccines would be 100% effective, 100% safe,”Johnson said just this week onFox News Primetime. “But they’re not. We now know that fully vaccinated individuals can catch Covid, they can transmit Covid. So what’s the point?”
It didn't take long for the medical establishment to take note that Johnson failed to mention thefact that vaccinations greatly reduce the risk of hospitalization ordeath.
"I’d say that he’s so misguided that it makes me wonder whether this is all just an act,” responded Jonathan Reiner, the medical analyst for CNN. "And if this is not an act, then he is just the most ignorant man in the United States Senate. And that says a lot."
2. Downplaying the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
"This didn’t seem like an armed insurrection to me," the Oshkosh Republicansaid in a February radio interview.
"I mean 'armed,' when you hear 'armed,' don’t you think of firearms? Here’s the questions I would have liked to ask. 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."
In truth, policerecovered a dozen guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition from seven people who were arrested over their involvement in the Jan. 6 riot that left at least five people dead,according to NBC News.
3. Denying climate change.
"I don't know about you guys, but I think climate change is —as Lord Monckton said —bullsh*t," Johnson said in June,mouthingthe expletive while referring to Britishclimate change skepticLord Christopher Monckton. "By the way, it is."
When asked about the comment to the Republican Women of Greater Wisconsin luncheon at Alioto's in Wauwatosa, the second-term senator then tried to soften his remark.
"My statements are consistent," he told the Journal Sentinel. "I am not a climate change denier, but I also am not a climate change alarmist. Climate is not static. It has always changed and always will change."
4. Calling Social Security a 'Ponzi scheme.'
"These things are Ponzi schemes;the money isn’t there," Johnson told a Milwaukee radio show in November. "You invest it — whether it’s Social Security or whatever — and the federal government spends it, and they just put in place another government bond. There isn’t money.There aren’t assets backing up these trust funds.”
The senator said something very similar in his first campaign in 2010.
In a radio ad, Johnson said of his opponents, "They're going to tell you I said Washington politicians have run Social Security like a Ponzi scheme."
Johnson then goes on to say in his radio spot: "I did say that, and it's true."
The pledge to fund Social Security is backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. Bernie Madoff's swindled clients had no such guarantee.
5. Questioning 'the big push' to get everyone vaccinated for coronavirus.
In an April interview with a conservative talk radio host,Johnson saidhe saw“no reason to be pushing vaccines on people,” arguing that their distribution should be “limited” to those most vulnerable to coronavirus.
“If you have a vaccine, quite honestly, what do you care if your neighbor has one or not?” he asked.
But Johnson had a different message six months earlier when he accused then-Sen. Kamala Harris of casting doubts on vaccines. Harris had said in a vice-presidential debate that she would not trust the safety and effectiveness of a COVID-19 vaccine solely on the word of then-President Donald Trump.
"That'd be a terrible thing if we have an effective vaccine and a safe one, and that's the only one we'll release," Johnson said in November 2020. "But if you are out there undermining that possibility, that will cause people's deaths."
6. Defending his work to secure tax breaks for his billionaire campaign backers.
“As someone who spent 31 years building a successful manufacturing company in Wisconsin, I have long said that our tax system needs to be simplified and rationalized,” Johnson said in August.
He also said his support forthe multimillion-dollar tax breakhad "nothing to do with any donor or discussions with them.”
According to Pro Publica, Johnson lobbiedthen-President Donald Trump to sweeten the tax break for companies known as pass-throughs in Trump's 2017 tax cut bill.
The change resulted in $79 million in tax savingsin 2018 for two of Johnson's biggest donors— Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, owners of packaging giant Uline in Pleasant Prairie, and Diane Hendricks, head of ABC Supply in Beloit.
7. Accusing Anthony Fauci of 'overhyping'COVID-19 and AIDS.
"Fauci did the exact same thing with AIDS," Johnson said of the president's chief medical adviser's statementson COVID's omicron variantin early December. "He overhyped it. He created all kinds of fear, saying it could affect the entire population when it couldn't. He's using the exact same playbook with COVID, ignoring therapy, pushing a vaccine."
For the record, COVID has killed more than 800,000 Americans since the beginning of the pandemic two years ago. The numbers for AIDS are even larger. That infectious disease has killed nearly 38 million people around the world.
8. Claiming the top 1% are paying their 'fair share.'
"The top 1% owns about 20% of the nation's assets," the multimillionaire businessmantold a truck driver during an October town hall. "But they pay 40% of the nation's income tax. I mean,at some point in time, we got to go, 'Well, it's probably pretty close to a fair share.'So I'm not into punitive taxation, I'm into fair."
In June, Pro Publica reported that a review of Internal Revenue Service records showed the richest 25 people in the country paid a true tax rate of just 3.4%. The online publication alsosaidmanybillionaires were paying at a lower ratethan the average person making $45,000.
9. Peddling Listerineas treatment for COVID-19.
"Standard gargle, mouthwash, has been proven to kill the coronavirus," Johnson said at a town hall earlier this month. "If you get it, you may reduce viral replication. Why not try all these things?”
Johnson later qualified what he meantin a statement tothe Journal Sentinel.
"I did not say that taking vitamins, using mouthwash, would be a replacement for the vaccine, should you choose to get one. There are multiple studies that saymouthwash may reduce viral load," Johnson said. "Even Dr. Fauci said, ‘I would not mind recommending, and I do it myself, taking vitamin D supplements.’ I continue to be amazed at the resistance to anything that might reduce the severity of COVID-19 symptoms.”
Of course, this is just one of many highly questionable claims that Johnson has made about the coronavirus.
In the past, he has touted the use of the antiparasitic drug ivermectin, questioned the use of ventilatorsfor COVID patients,suggested vaccinated Americans could be perpetuating the coronavirus pandemic and claimed distributing vaccines during a pandemic "could be dangerous."
You kinda get the idea.
10. Asserting that he never felt threatened by rioters on Jan. 6.
"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,” Johnson told conservative talk show host Joe Pags in March.
But Johnsonsaid he might have felt differently if the march had been led by Black Lives Matter.
"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," Johnson concluded.
A week later, the Wisconsin senator said there was "no violence" on the Senate side of the U.S. Capitol during the insurrection.
CNN reported that security cameras and videosshowed riotersbroke Senate windowsand stormed through the halls near the Senate chamber.
Contact Daniel Bice at (414) 313-6684ordbice@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter@DanielBiceor on Facebook atfb.me/daniel.bice.
