GOP senator: Capitol attack 'didn't seem like an armed insurrection to me'

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) claimed on Monday that the attack on the U.S. Capitol “didn’t seem like an armed insurrection to me.”

Johnson made his claim while appearing for a radio interview on “The Jay Weber Show.”

“The fact of the matter is, this didn’t seem like an armed insurrection to me,” Johnson told the host, while arguing that “groups of agitators that were the tip of the spear” caused the bulk of the damage from the attack.

Johnson complained that video footage of the attack shown at Donald Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate “was edited” to remove scenes “where people were helping police.”

According to Johnson, the people who broke through barricades and overran Capitol Police were merely “Trump supporters who would never even contemplate” hurting people inside.

Despite Johnson’s allegation, there were multiple weapons confiscated from the mob who attacked the Capitol. Court documents indicate that multiple guns, Molotov cocktails, a crossbow, smoke bombs, and a stun gun were confiscated.

Another man was arrested after driving to Washington, D.C., from Colorado with a handgun, an assault rifle, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, after texting with others about murdering House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The Capitol Police Union said 140 police officers were injured during the attack, and a total of 5 people died, including a police officer. The chair of the union said in a press release that officers sustained head injuries, smashed spinal discs, and stabbing from a metal fence stake.

Two officers who were caught in the attack have died via suicide. The police department has indicated that there are ongoing concerns about the mental health of the hundreds of officers who responded to the incursion.

From the Feb. 15 edition of WISN’s “The Jay Weber Show”:

JAY WEBER, host: What are your thoughts on a militarized Washington, D.C. since this Capitol riot happened?

 

RON JOHNSON: Well unless there’s some threats that they’re not briefing me about, I call for the removal of the fence, I think I’ve basically described what’s happening here: This is Nancy Pelosi, this is Chuck Schumer’s way of communicating to America that 74 million Americans who voted for Donald Trump are potential domestic terrorists and armed insurrectionists and we need to be protected from them.

 

That is why they’re willing to spend a half a billion, a billion, whatever it takes, to make that point. And that’s really what the trial’s about as well.

 

One thing, and this will get me in trouble, but I don’t care. Again, I condemn what happened, it was reprehensible, never should have happened but there were groups of agitators that were the tip of the spear that caused that.

 

Not the tens of thousands of Trump supporters who would never even contemplate that, and quite honestly the video was edited where people were helping police, okay? But, the fact of the matter is, this didn’t seem like an armed insurrection to me.

 

Armed, when you think and hear armed, don’t you think of firearms?

 

WEBER: Mmm-hmm.

 

JOHNSON: Here’s a question 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, but I think there was only one.

 

If that was a planned armed insurrection, you really have a bunch of idiots.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.