Senate's Dumbest Republican Just Real Broken Up About What Happened In Kenosha

It's your Sunday show rundown!

Seventeen-year-old Trump-loving Kyle Rittenhouse is charged with committing literal murder in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last week, and tensions are higher than ever.

GOP Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, AKA the Senate's Dumbest Republican, went on CNN's "State Of The Union," and just couldn't bring himself to say an unkind word about Rittenhouse, or the fascist violence overtaking the streets.

Dana Bash asked Johnson if he was comfortable with Donald Trump inflaming tensions further, quoting from Trump's Sunday tweetstorm. Johnson responded by talking over Bash to blame "disdain for police" and calling for "control of the situation" (i.e. MORE police) while saying "We need to encourage calm." Bash again asked the question Johnson tried to sidestep about Trump "agitating and actively encouraging his supporters to go into Portland, which is resulting in some of this violence." Johnson responded:

JOHNSON: But, Dana, there are people -- there are people agitating all over the place. And what we need to do is get control of the situation.

I know it's a cliché to point the hypocrisy but it never seizes to amaze how little responsibility the "party of personal responsibility" takes for that which it sows.

Johnson, talking over Bash, blamed Portland's official for not accepting Trump's "federal help," AKA the rise in violent escalation by cops and Trump supporters. Johnson, filibustering, accidentally talked himself into an admission:

JOHNSON: The way you stop the violence, the way you stop the rioting is, you surge manpower and resources,citizen soldiers, National Guard, and you overwhelm the numbers of rioters, so that they can't riot, so that you can protect people's First Amendment constitutional right to peacefully protest and that they don't turn to riots.

Yep, that's right! Johnson's solution is to VIOLENTLY put down protests that are mostly peaceful until police or outside forces escalate. To top it off, he mentions "citizen soldiers" -- you know, like Kyle Rittenhouse. In this moment Johnson told us everything you need to know about Republicans: They don't care about police abuse and will encourage vigilantism so long as it's on "their side."

Johnson couldn't even say the president Of The United States should condemn violence:

BASH: So, doesn't the president have a responsibility to call out violence, regardless of who is committing it?

JOHNSON: Yes, and the governor has responsibility to accept the surge in manpower, so that people...

BASH: I'm asking about the president.

JOHNSON: ... so that citizens -- so that citizens don't believe they got to protect their own property and take matters into their own hands.

BASH: I'm asking about the president. We can talk about the governor next. The president, yes or no?

JOHNSON: Because that's really what happened.

Nor would Johnson condemn it:

BASH: The 17-year-old accused of committing those two murders was a Trump supporter.

JOHNSON: It is a tragedy.

BASH: Do you -- do you condemn that?

JOHNSON: It is a tragedy.

BASH: Do you condemn it?

JOHNSON: It is a tragedy. It is -- it's a tragedy.

BASH: It is a tragedy, but do you condemn it?

JOHNSON: The entire situation is a tragedy. Listen, I don't want to see any loss of life. It is a tragedy. And the way you prevent these tragedies is, you support law enforcement...

BASH: But a tragedy could be a car accident.

JOHNSON: ... you calm the situation.

BASH: A tragedy could be a car accident or something happening that is not...

JOHNSON: But you don't allow peaceful...

BASH: ... based on fault.

JOHNSON: You don't allow...

BASH: Do you condemn this?

JOHNSON: You don't allow peaceful protest to turn siege -- into siege […]

Jesus! The passive language and phrasing they use to excuse violence, whether it's committed by cops or right-wing citizens that just really want to be cops so bad.

Moving on!

Also appearing on the Sunday shows was acting ( illegally ) DHS Secretary and lost Winklevoss triplet Chad Wolf, who pinky swore to Jonathan Karl on ABC's "This Week" that he did not know the Republican National Convention would use that naturalization ceremony as an RNC campaign commercial. Then he went on CBS's "Face The Nation" to tell host Margaret Brennan why it's OK for Trump to encourage more of his supporters to go into Portland, thus adding to the violence:

As @RealDonaldTrump hailed pro-Trump demonstrators driving into #Portland as "great patriots", @DHS_Wolf claims as… https: //t.co/r9SYM1BhT3

— Face The Nation (@Face The Nation) 1598798671.0 

One of the insidious ways Johnson and Wolf are gaslighting the media is by using phrases like "protect their own property," despite how, for example, Kyle Rittenhouse wasn't anywhere near his "property," what with how he does not live in Wisconsin. They also say things like "take matters into their own hands."

These phrases are like a dark Jedi mind trick for easily fooled people.

A good example was on NBC's "Meet The Press," where Chuck Todd fell for it when White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows did it:

The mainstream media has been completely worked by Republicans. Chuck Todd is using the language of white supremac… https: //t.co/pQ73F7EjFo

— Matt Negrin, HOST OF HARDBALL AT 7PM ON MSNBC (@Matt Negrin, HOST OF HARDBALL AT 7PM ON MSNBC) 1598798752.0 

Chuck Todd once again showed how "bothsidesism" allows Republican propaganda to be weighed equally with truth. It's how minorities getting killed disproportionately by cops or by the pandemic, young angry white men killing innocent people, and Rand Paul getting yelled at a whole bunch are all just "tragedies."

What happened in Kenosha is not a "tragedy." This could all be fixed with leadership and the desire to actually want to make a more perfect union by reforming the broken justice system, from top to bottom.

A real tragedy is bravely fighting cancer then dying at 43 on Jackie Robinson's Day and Jack Kirby's birthday.

Rest in Power, Chadwick Boseman.

Keep fighting.

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