Sen. Ron Johnson has some nerve, and the people at Milwaukee’s Juneteenth celebration on Saturday weren’t interested in giving him a pass.
In 2020, Johnson blocked legislation that would have made Juneteenth a federal holiday. In 2021, he grudgingly got out of the way, allowing the bill to pass the Senate by unanimous consent. But when he showed up at a Juneteenth event in Milwaukee, his constituents showed they remembered 2020—by booing him.
Johnson’s statement that he would allow passage of the Juneteenth holiday made clear that he wasn’t happy about it: “While it still seems strange that having taxpayers provide federal employees paid time off is now required to celebrate the end of slavery, it is clear that there is no appetite in Congress to further discuss the matter.”
Kinda sounds like he wanted to block it and some of his fellow Republicans told him no, doesn’t it?
When Johnson showed up at Milwaukee’s Juneteenth celebration on Saturday, he initially told reporters that he was getting a good welcome aside from “one nasty comment,” the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported. But then, "as more people recognized him, he was drowned out by a chorus of boos. Members of a growing crowd swore at him and said, ‘We don't want you here.’”
That chorus of boos was no joke:
Johnson was disappointed in the response. “This is unusual for Wisconsin,” he told the Journal-Sentinel. “Most people in Wisconsin say, 'You are in our prayers; we are praying for you.' ... But you got some people here that are just sort of nasty at some points.”
How dare people be nasty when the man who tried to block the event they were celebrating from becoming a federal holiday showed up.
This kind of treatment of Ron Johnson was “not how you heal the nation,” said Ron Johnson, an expert on healing the nation. Johnson has spent the last several months trying to cover up the reality of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, an effort to disrupt the peaceful transition of power through violence. He's said that the Trump-supporting mob were “people that love this country, that truly respect law enforcement, would never do anything to break a law, and so I wasn’t concerned.” But “had the tables been turned, Joe, and this’ll 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.”
And he wants to talk about healing the nation? When he shows up at Juneteenth in Milwaukee? Those boos were about the most polite reception he had any right to expect.
In 2020, Johnson blocked legislation that would have made Juneteenth a federal holiday. In 2021, he grudgingly got out of the way, allowing the bill to pass the Senate by unanimous consent. But when he showed up at a Juneteenth event in Milwaukee, his constituents showed they remembered 2020—by booing him.
Johnson’s statement that he would allow passage of the Juneteenth holiday made clear that he wasn’t happy about it: “While it still seems strange that having taxpayers provide federal employees paid time off is now required to celebrate the end of slavery, it is clear that there is no appetite in Congress to further discuss the matter.”
Kinda sounds like he wanted to block it and some of his fellow Republicans told him no, doesn’t it?
When Johnson showed up at Milwaukee’s Juneteenth celebration on Saturday, he initially told reporters that he was getting a good welcome aside from “one nasty comment,” the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported. But then, "as more people recognized him, he was drowned out by a chorus of boos. Members of a growing crowd swore at him and said, ‘We don't want you here.’”
That chorus of boos was no joke:
Johnson was disappointed in the response. “This is unusual for Wisconsin,” he told the Journal-Sentinel. “Most people in Wisconsin say, 'You are in our prayers; we are praying for you.' ... But you got some people here that are just sort of nasty at some points.”
How dare people be nasty when the man who tried to block the event they were celebrating from becoming a federal holiday showed up.
This kind of treatment of Ron Johnson was “not how you heal the nation,” said Ron Johnson, an expert on healing the nation. Johnson has spent the last several months trying to cover up the reality of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, an effort to disrupt the peaceful transition of power through violence. He's said that the Trump-supporting mob were “people that love this country, that truly respect law enforcement, would never do anything to break a law, and so I wasn’t concerned.” But “had the tables been turned, Joe, and this’ll 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.”
And he wants to talk about healing the nation? When he shows up at Juneteenth in Milwaukee? Those boos were about the most polite reception he had any right to expect.