Ron Johnson’s A Jerk, Other Revelations From Second Wisconsin Senate Debate

Dare we dream that Mandela Barnes can make a comeback

Thursday, Democratic Lt. Gov Mandela Barnes and Republican Sen. Ron Johnson faced off for their second debate of the Wisconsin Senate campaign. I don’t remember the first. I assume there wasn’t a duel. The second went as you expected. Johnson was gross, and Barnes was charming. Voters might still go with gross because they think the charming Black man will release serial killer from prison and open all the doors to our southern border.

Barnes is trailing in the polls and the punditry agreed that he needed this debate to regain momentum in the race. However, according to Reid Epstein at the New York Times, Barnes “failed to create a singular moment destined to go viral on social and broadcast media.” Maybe he should’ve challenged Johnson to a duel. At the very least, it would’ve established his Second Amendment credentials.

Barnes got some licks in about how Johnson is a clueless, rich asshole who wants to jeopardize Social Security and give more tax breaks to his wealthy donors. He didn’t even work that hard for his money. He just took over his father-in-law’s plastics company, basically sleeping his way to the top like all the sexist bigots accuse Kamala Harris (without evidence) of doing.

Here’s Barnes with the burn of the night: “Senator Johnson takes a lot of credit for his business-in-law.”

Johnson countered that Barnes is a loser who never held a “real” job or at the very least married someone whose father gave him a real job. Johnson further made what the Times describes as “a low-key cultural case against Barnes.” In other words, he was racist as fuck. I suppose it was “low-key” because the white tie and hood were optional.

PREVIOUSLY: Wisconsin Senate Debate: Dreamy Mandela Barnes Vs. Dumb Stupidhead Ron Johnson 

From The Times:  

He spoke to an audience prepared to view Mr. Barnes, a Milwaukee native aiming to be the state’s first Black senator, as a grifter who hasn’t worked a private sector job and is foreign to the legions of mostly white swing voters in the state’s small cities as well as longtime suburban Republicans who left the party during the Trump elections.

Uh,whyis the audience prepared to view Wisconsin’s freaking lieutenant governor like the guy on the subway wearing just a trench coat and a creepy smile? Why is aTimesreporter, who should know how words work, using “foreign” to describe a Wisconsin native? Yes, he was born in Milwaukee, where they brew beer and Black people, but that’s still in the state.

Republicans have hammered Barnes with negative ads about his “radical” beliefs and dangerous associations with … other Democrats. Meanwhile, Ron Johnson is a full-fledged coup plotter. Here’s what he said when Barnes called him out for trying to help Donald Trump overturn a presidential election and end democracy.

“Johnson says the FBI set him up. The audience laughs at him 😬”

— Acyn (@Acyn) 1665705385 

JOHNSON: In response to the wild charge by Lt. Gov. Barnes, the FBI set me up with a corrupt briefing and then leaked that to smear me.

The audience started laughing, like it was open mic night, and Johnson rambled on about all the “corruption” within the FBI that he’s definitely going to uncover someday.

It’s hilarious of course that the supposed “law and order” candidate said, out loud, that the FBI “set me up.” It’s a wonder he didn’t go on about how the coppers will never pin anything on him and he’ll beat any charges like Rocky.

The debate ended with that silly final question about what the candidates find admirable about each other. This is a dick exposure test that Ted Cruz predictably failed during his 2018 debate against Beto O’Rourke. Even Donald Trump was able to say that Hillary Clinton is a “fighter.” Johnson however went the Cruz route. After Barnes praised Johnson as a family man, Johnson said Barnes had loving parents and a good upbringing but he betrayed them both by turning his back on America. This was so grotesque the audience straight up booed him, as if he was wearing a large black mustache in a silent film. Check it out:  

“The candidates are asked what they find admirable about each other. Johnson uses the question to attack Barnes saying he turned against America. Johnson is booed by the audience”

— Acyn (@Acyn) 1665705603 

I tend to think if you’re both booed and laughed at derisively at a debate, you have scored no points and God should have mercy on your soul, but theTimesinsists that Johnson managed to avoid any “major errors” while painting “Barnes as someone culturally divorced from the population of white independent voters outside the state’s major cities who determine the balance of statewide elections.” He was racist, guys. It would really help if the paper of Muzak records would actually report about all the racism.

The latest Marquette University poll has Johnson leading the “foreigner” Barnes 52 to 46 percent “among ‘absolutely certain’ voters, but among those less than certain to vote, it’s Barnes 51 percent and Johnson 31 percent.” Wish the “less than certain” folks cared enough about democracy and bodily autonomy to vote. It’s gonna be a long six years.

[ New York Times ]

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