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‘Russian’ Sen. Ron Johnson Hammered for ‘Pants on Fire’ Lie January 6 Capitol Coup Wasn’t ‘Armed Insurrection’

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Embattled Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, a die-hard Trump supporter, is under attack after claiming the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol wasn’t an “armed insurrection.”

“This didn’t seem like an armed insurrection to me,” Senator Johnson told far right wing host Jay Weber on WISN, as The Washington Post reports. “When you hear the word ‘armed,’ don’t you think of firearms? Here’s the questions I would have liked to ask: How many firearms were confiscated? How many shots were fired?”

“If that was a planned armed insurrection, man, you had really a bunch of idiots,” Johnson added.

Up until just weeks ago Johnson was the Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, meaning more than most in the Senate he had unique access to those with direct knowledge of what occurred during the January 6 insurrection. In other words, he could have – and should have – checked.

Johnson, as many have noted since his remarks over the weekend, had access to Google.

Politifact quickly rated his claim “Pants on Fire,” and noted that not only were there many guns, but other weapons, including “explosive,” along with “knives, brass knuckles a stun gun and other weapons.”

“By afternoon, the officers in the Capitol were in a fight for their lives and for the seat of American government,” CNN reported January 19, about the day of the insurrection, in an article that uses some form of the word “gun” ten times. “They were left to their own devices, outgunned, without adequate protective equipment, unaware of backup, enclosed by people, many with weapons, attempting to take over the government.”

“One officer said he wouldn’t have begrudged any officer for firing their gun, but they were outgunned. ‘I got 16 bullets in my handgun, 28 in my long gun. Then what?’ he said.”

“At that point, I wasn’t looking for arms. But there were arrests with guns, a cooler of Molotov (cocktails was) found. We recovered 9 or 10 guns, found or taken off people. Guarantee so many more had ’em,” he said. “You don’t want to start a gunfight and have a bloodbath. We wouldn’t have won.”

Five days earlier The Washington Post offered this quote from Metro D.C. Police officer Daniel Hodges:

“I didn’t want to be the guy who starts shooting, because I knew they had guns — we had been seizing guns all day,” he said. “And the only reason I could think of that they weren’t shooting us was they were waiting for us to shoot first. And if it became a firefight between a couple hundred officers and a couple thousand demonstrators, we would have lost.”

Johnson was quickly hammered for his obvious falsehood:

 

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‘Well Peter, There Was a Global Pandemic’: Psaki Socks Doocy for Not Grasping How World Events Affect Inflation

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March 10, 2022

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White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki is no longer holding back her frustration to chaos agents and propagandists in her briefing room.

Fox News propagandist Peter Doocy on Thursday continued his false framing and intentional disregard of how world events affect economic conditions and inflation.

Psaki was forced to inform Doocy that there’s “no question that when a foreign dictator invades a foreign country, and when that foreign dictator is the head of a country that is the third-largest supplier of oil in the world, that that is going to have an impact.”

Ignoring that basic fact, Doocy continued, this time grossly politicizing world events.

“The President’s statement blames the ‘Putin price hike.’ Are you guys just gonna start blaming Putin for everything until the midterms?”

“Well, we’ve seen the price of gas go up at least 75 cents since President Putin lined up troops on the border of Ukraine,” Psaki replied.

Doocy continued to put his inability to understand on full display.

“Last month, the statement didn’t mention the ‘Putin price hike.’ It mentioned inflation because of the pandemic. Why is that?” Doocy asked.

“Well, Peter last year, last two years, there was a global pandemic. Everyone who’s a – global economists have all agreed that this has been the biggest contributor to date of inflation because of the impact on the supply chain. Obviously, global events impact the economy, the global economy, as well as global inflation and the price hikes as a result that have escalated over the course of time of President Putin’s further invasion of the impact on the global oil markets are of course having an impact.”

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‘Whole Case Is a Mess’: Internet Stunned as Judge Lets Rittenhouse Choose Final Jurors in Raffle System

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November 16, 2021

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Controversial Judge Bruce Schroeder allowed Kyle Rittenhouse, on trial for shooting three people and killing two of them with an AR-15 assault weapon he had illegally obtained and carried across state lines, with literally having a hand in choosing the twelve jurors who will now decide his fate.

Judge Schroder has been under fire for what many see as extraordinary deference to Rittenhouse, some even say support of Rittenhouse. Others have noted his cell phone ring tone is the same song as Donald Trump’s campaign theme song, and others still were offended by at least one offhand “joke” Schroder made. Trial watchers were also stunned when Schroder falsely claimed zooming in on a photo as millions of people do daily to enlarge it is “so-called scientific evidence.” And others were disturbed by Schroeder’s very public attacks on the prosecutor.

18 jurors sat through the entire trial, but only 12, as is customary, will decide the case.

“At the direction of Circuit Judge Bruce Schroder,” the Associated Press reports Tuesday afternoon, “Rittenhouse’s attorney placed slips of paper into a raffle drum with the numbers of each of the 18 jurors on it who sat through the two-week trial. The drum had been sitting on a window ledge throughout the trial but was placed in front of Rittenhouse at the defense table Tuesday.”

“Rittenhouse then selected six pieces of paper from the drum, who a court official then read aloud to be dismissed: 11, 58, 14, 45, 9 and 52.”

The remaining 12 will deliberate the case.

“I’ve never heard of a defendant pulling the names,” Portage County Assistant District Attorney Robert Jambois told the AP. “That’s done by a member of the court.”

Not in this case, which has deviated from general norms repeatedly.

Former Milwaukee County assistant district attorney Julius Kim told the AP, “I’ve never seen a judge allow a defendant to draw those names. That might be a little unconventional but there’s nothing wrong with it that I could really see.”

On social media many were stunned.

 

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Watch: NBC News Reporter Blames President Biden for ‘Profane’ Right Wing ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Attacks

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1 year ago

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November 12, 2021

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NBC News’ Peter Alexander on Friday appeared to blame President Joe Biden for the extreme right’s profane and vulgar attacks which are masked by the code phrase “Let’s Go Brandon.”

The phrase actually means “F*ck Joe Biden,” but Alexander blamed the President for its usage and popularity among the right.

“Across this country, we’ve seen this new phenomenon lately chanted at sporting events and on signs. The phrase is ‘Let’s Go Brandon,’ and is sort of code for a profane slogan attacking President Biden. What does the President make of that?” Alexander asked White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on her first day back from battling a breakthrough case of COVID-19.

“I don’t think he spends much time focused on it or thinking about it,” she replied.

But Alexander sought fit to press his question, insisting that somehow President Biden was to blame, asking if he should be doing things differently, given that one of Biden’s “primary promises” was “to help bring Americans together.”

“The president said when he came into office on Inauguration Day,” Alexander began again, “he said he was going to help get rid of the uncivil war in this country. So I guess through that lens right now, does the President think there’s things that he can do differently? Or how does he react to the stuff he sees out there when it is one of his primary promises or desires to help bring Americans together?”

Psaki made clear it’s a two-way street.

“Well, it takes two to move towards a more civil engagement discourse in this country and the President’s going to continue to operate, as you said, from the promise he made early on which is that he wants to govern for all Americans. He’s going to deliver for all Americans as is evidenced by the infrastructure bill that he’s going to sign on Monday. That’s going to help expand broadcast – broadband – to everyone, no matter your political party, no matter whether you voted for him or not. That’s going to replace lead pipes, make sure kids have clean drinking water, whether you’re a Democrat or Republican or not political at all. That’s how he’s going to govern. And certainly we’re hopeful we’ll have partners to move toward more civil discourse with in the future. Thank you. Thanks.”

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