In a Washington Post Live virtual program July 17 at the Republican National Convention, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) called for Americans to come together after the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump and partially blamed the “mainstream media” for the current political climate.
Johnson said that it’s a good thing that both Trump and President Joe Biden have called for unity and healing in recent speeches after the assassination attempt.
“I’ve been for the last couple of years, saying that as much as the debt deficit is a threat to this country, the greatest threat right now is the fact that we are a horribly divided nation,” Johnson said. “But we’re not a nationally divided people on the big things in life: safety, security, opportunity so we can provide for our families, (and) the fact we love this country. This is what Americans share. These are big things in life. We shouldn’t be divided.”
Johnson said that “mainstream media” has tormented Trump ever since he became the nominee.
“It’d also be helpful for us if the Washington Post returned the Pulitzer Prizes their reporters received for years reporting the false Russia collusion hoax,” Johnson said. “I haven’t seen that happen. And by the way, that doesn’t exactly help our politics when you got a mainstream media that just carries a false story, and never even apologizes for it or admits It was completely false and has put this country in political turmoil ever since it was being reported. So yeah, I do blame the mainstream media for being highly biased, not holding both sides equally accountable.”
Johnson was one of the many speakers at the 2024 Republican National Convention that is being held in Milwaukee until July 18. The convention already saw Trump selected as the Republican Party’s nominee by the Republican delegates July 15, the same day that Trump announced Sen. James David Vance (R-Ohio) would be his nominee for vice president.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Johnson’s speech at the convention July 15 hit a road bump when lines of his speech did not appear on the teleprompter. According to the Journal Sentinel, Johnson mistakenly read a line not intended to be in the final draft of his speech where he said Democratic policies were “a clear and present danger to America, to our institutions, our values and our people.”
When asked about the teleprompter mishap during the Washington Post Live virtual program July 17, Johnson stood behind his quote and said that he did not personally attack Democrats, just Democratic agenda and policies.
“I firmly believe that, and we have to talk about them,” Johnson said. “It’s a political campaign, Democrats that have a different vision. They have different ideologies. They have different policies. I think open borders, I think four-year high inflation, I think war on fossil fuels, weakness is being displayed … I think all these things endanger America; we have to talk about those things to campaign, there’s nothing divisive about that.”
Johnson also said that he has no faith in the FBI or the Department of Justice to do an honest investigation into the assassination attempt on Trump and that he has no confidence in Director Kimberly Cheatle of the U.S. Secret Service.
“I’ve already written a letter demanding they deserve all their documents before and after this event,” Johnson said. “We (congress) need to do oversight over their investigations. We need to leave no stone unturned. I have so many questions, and I know I’ll have questions once we get more details. But just (look) what’s out there in social media. I don’t want to tie into rumors right now because I just don’t know enough. But this was an obvious massive security failure.”
The Republican National Convention will wrap up July 18 in Milwaukee with a speech from Trump.
The Democratic National Convention will begin Aug. 19 and the Advance-Titan will have daily coverage of the event.
