Sen. Ron Johnson Says Capitol Rioters Were ‘Fake Trump Supporters’ At Senate Hearing

During a Senate hearing on Tuesday discussing the Capitol Police response to the Capitol insurrection, Sen. Ron Johnson claimed that the rioters who stormed the Capitol building on January 6 were actually undercover leftists who were posing as Trump supporters.

Johnson said on a radio interview in February that the insurrection “didn’t seem like an armed insurrection,” but Tuesday’s claims go even further, alleging “an organized cell of agents-provocateurs [corralled] people as an unwitting follow-on force behind the plainclothes militants tussling with police,” Johnson said to former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund.

Without letting Sund respond, Johnson then, separately, blamed Capitol Police’s use of tear gas for the rioters’ violence.

Johnson’s argument was based on a report from the far-right think tank, the Center for Security Policy, which wrote that Capitol Police’s deployment of tear gas “changed the crowd’s demeanor,” which seemingly contradicts Johnson’s prior point that the rioters were secret leftists who already planned to turn the rioters even more violent.

Wisconsin voters have become increasingly outspoken against Johnson’s pro-Trump rhetoric. Wisconsin Democratic Chair Ben Wikler explained to uPolitics his party’s plan to oust Johnson in the upcoming 2022 senate race.