Tuesday, August 18, 2020

Ron Johnson - fool, crook, or Russian agent? Or all 3?

In recent weeks, our Dumb Senator - aka Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) has been trying to cook up some kind of dirt on Joe Biden based on "information" given to him by Russians and pro-Russian Ukrainian agents.

Lame enough, especially when the Homeland Security Chair should probably care more about our historic pandemic or with foreigners using fake profiles on social media to misinform Americans.

Johnson's twitter feed has become an increasingly frantic and desperate tinge to it, with multi-thread posts trying to justify this "story". And he looks even worse and suspect today, after the Republican-run Senate Intelligence Committee released this 966-page document today. The report shows more than ever that the Russians and Donald Trump's campaign were on the same team in 2016.



But it's not like Ron Johnson didn't know about this. After all, Johnson was in the room when Moscow Mitch McConnell and other Republicans convinced President Obama not to go public about Russian intereference before the November 2016 elections.
Johnson said he attended a September briefing with Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, FBI Director James Comey, and White House counterterrorism adviser Lisa Monaco. The Washington Post, in its initial report on the CIA findings, described that session as an effort to win bipartisan buy-in for a public statement of support against Russian cyberattacks.

“They were assuring everybody there was no way Russia could hack our voting machines,” Johnson told Wisconsin Public Radio. “I don't know what changed from that briefing to this in terms of additional information.”
That's a mighty specific statement, RoJo. The Intelligence Committee report from today says nothing about voting machines, but does talk a lot about the coordination Russian agents had with the Trump campaign, and how both worked together on spreading misinformation to the public.

That's what Johnson was saying in December 2016. We now know he was clearly lying, both by omission (which is why he was so specific), and in pleading ignorance. A few weeks after Johnson made those statements, Urban Milwaukee's Bruce Murphy put the pieces together in a great report that asked "Ron Johnson Asleep on Russian Hacking?"

Murphy notes that Johnson claimed a lot of ignorance in the Fall of 2016 when it came to pre-election reports that Russians were targeting American voters with fake social media accounts and bots. Johnson reversed his prior anti-Russian stances, and chose not to expose the Russian psy-ops, keeping Wisconsin voters in the dark ahead of the election, and denied that he was in the loop.
Russia’s interference with the American elections fit the pattern of a country engaged in disinformation and destabilization efforts across the globe, as Johnson has described it. And Russia’s leader was someone Johnson already suspected of nefarious acts. Johnson had previously sponsored resolutions calling for a full investigation into the murder of a Russian political opposition leader and for an investigation of Russia’s attacks on the Ukraine.

Johnson, in short, had an opportunity to be a patriot and condemn the fact that Russia was now engaged in such activities in the United States. But he issued no resolutions — in fact, not one word — on Russian’s cyber attacks on America.

Worse, he has engaged in his own pattern of misinformation on the subject. After the CIA publicly released a report in January concluding that Russia meddled in the presidential election to help Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump win the election, Johnson issued a statement to the Wisconsin State Journal saying he would “would need more definitive information before drawing further conclusions.” Johnson did not reveal that he had been informed back in September this was happening.

Johnson went on to complain to CNBC that the CIA refused to brief him on Russian hacking, saying “I have not seen the evidence that it actually was Russia,” while failing to note the CIA report’s echoed the briefing he’d received from other intelligence leaders in September.

Johnson also complained that Obama had failed to confront the Russia government with strength, even though the Obama administration had proposed a strong stand on cyber hacking which Johnson declined to join.
And the reason why RoJo is pulling this routine is obvious - the Russians and the NRA were working together to help Johnson and Trump in Wisconsin, and he will go to any length to cover up that fact, and the illegitimacy that goes along with it.

It's well past time Russian Ronnie gets thrown up on the stand before the House Intelligence and Foreign Relations Committee, and have to answer why he continues to waste taxpayer money to obstruct and muddy the waters on non-issues, and lie to the public in an attempt to save his own hide.

And maybe our state media will finally dig deeper into a story that has been out there in plain sight - that one of our two US Senators has helped to lead a multi-year cover-up and partisan smear campaign in an attempt to hide just how much he owes to the Russians and their allies.

PS- And now Ronnie decides he wants to try to do his part to cover up deal with another Trump/GOP election scheme.

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