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Ron Johnson draws gasps and guffaws from debate crowd, but we can give his opponent the last laugh [1]
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Date: 2022-10-14
Moderator Charles Benson closed out Thursday night’s Wisconsin Senate debate at Marquette University in Milwaukee with a question that was meant to introduce a bit of bonhomie into what’s been a hard-fought, no-holds-barred campaign. Benson asked both candidates to say something admirable about their opponent. Barnes responded like a normal human being, but Johnson decided to go another way with it.
Watch:
x Moderators closed tonight's Wisconsin Senate debate by asking each candidate to say something they find admirable about the other.
Lt. Gov Mandela Barnes (D) said Sen. Ron Johnson (R) is a "family man."
Johnson said Barnes is "against America."
The audience booed Johnson. pic.twitter.com/zoFiSIf5kg — Heartland Signal (@HeartlandSignal) October 14, 2022
BENSON: “When we traveled around the state talking with voters, we heard repeatedly from people tired of divisive politics and attack ads. So our final question here tonight is, both of you have been successful in life. You have 30 seconds here. Mr. Barnes, you go first. What do you find admirable about your opponent?” BARNES: “Well, no, no, seriously, I do think the senator has proven to be a family man, and I think that’s admirable. You know, that’s absolutely to be respected. He speaks about his family and he’s done a lot to provide for them, and I absolutely respect that.” BENSON: “Mr. Johnson.” JOHNSON: “Likewise. I appreciate the fact that Lt. Gov. Barnes had loving parents—a schoolteacher, father worked third shift. So good upbringing. I guess what puzzles me about that is with that upbringing, why has he turned against America?” AUDIENCE: [Boos]
Jesus Christ, what an asshole! And even if Barnes is “against America”—which, for the record, he’s obviously not—at least he doesn’t spend his Independence Days playing footsie with brutal, murderous dictators.
Of course, that wasn’t the only time Johnson’s answers drew derision from the audience. RoJo was pretty much an unintentional laugh riot from beginning to end. More than once, the audience openly guffawed at his nonsense.
For instance, after Barnes noted that Johnson had been warned by the FBI that the Kremlin was trying to turn him into an asset, Johnson trotted out an explanation that sounded roughly as plausible as “alien chemtrails scrambled my brain.”
x Johnson says the FBI set him up.
The audience laughs at him 😬 pic.twitter.com/aVlYg0fk0z — Acyn (@Acyn) October 13, 2022
JOHNSON: “In response to the wild charges of Lt. Gov. Barnes, the FBI set me up with a corrupt briefing and then leaked that to smear me. Let’s talk about it. He’s referring to corruption by the FBI, which I’ve been trying to uncover and expose.”
And here he is claiming that building Donald Trump’s useless southern vanity wall would cost less than not building it:
x Ron Johnson elicits laughter during tonight's debate with Barnes when he claims it costs more not to build Trump's wall than to build it pic.twitter.com/gJnYrUMeTZ — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 13, 2022
JOHNSON: “It has cost us more not to complete the wall that we’ve already contracted for than to actually build it.” AUDIENCE: [Laughs] JOHNSON: “Democrats have voted against three of my amendments, in committee and on the floor. All but Sen [Joe] Manchin voted against completing the wall that we’ve already bought and paid for.”
Okay, sure. But since the wall is clearly useless—at least without an alligator-filled moat and/or a total rewrite of international law—the next red cent we spend on it will be 100% wasted. Also, walls need maintenance—and not only to plug the holes people keep sawing in them with cheap, easily obtained reciprocating saws. So actually finishing the Trump border sieve would simply commit us to a perpetual boondoggle.
Meanwhile, RoJo turns so white in this clip as Barnes takes him to the woodshed over abortion rights, you’d think he’d already slathered on his greasepaint in preparation for his next answer.
x Ron Johnson is doing everything he can to hide the fact that he supported an abortion ban without exceptions for rape, incest, or the life of the woman.
In Ron Johnson's America, women don't have the right to make decisions about their most difficult healthcare decisions. #wisen pic.twitter.com/t3Pyfw0Zcs — Mandela Barnes (@TheOtherMandela) October 13, 2022
BARNES: “In Ron Johnson’s America, women don’t get to make the best choices for their health. Rape victims don’t … get to make the choices for themselves. That’s the unfortunate reality. I support us going back to Roe v. Wade. That was the law of the land that worked for 50 years. And Roe also allowed for some restrictions, but the reality is it had strong protections for the health and the life of the mother, and that’s what we should be moving toward. Sen. Johnson has sponsored eight different national abortion bans. He sponsored abortion bans that had no exceptions for rape, incest, or the life of the mother, and that position is too out of touch and extreme for Wisconsin.”
Wisconsin, if you’re tired of being represented by a racist clown, it’s time to back Barnes, who will stop embarrassing you on a near-daily basis. But it goes well beyond that. Not only did Barnes have a “good upbringing,” he’s lived a good life—much of which he’s dedicated to helping others.
Unlike Johnson, who’s gone out of his way to question the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, Barnes has traveled throughout Wisconsin to encourage lifesaving vaccinations. Rather than pushing tax breaks that would benefit himself and his donors at the expense of working Wisconsinites and small businesses, Barnes has worked to strengthen unions. Instead of threatening everyone’s Social Security and Medicare benefits by trying to remove their status as entitlements, Barnes promises to fiercely protect those benefits.
So the choice is clear, and stark—even if you are a big fan of comedy. If you can, please rush a donation to Barnes. Our Senate majority—and the very fate of our democracy—may depend on it.
Donate now to give Democrats a true majority in the Senate.
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