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'A WHOLE LOT WHITER NOW'

‘America’s Dumbest Senator’: Ron Johnson Dragged for ‘Incredibly Ignorant’ Claim About How Greenland Got Its Name

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Embattled U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI), already under fire for his support of the insurrection and the “big lie,” and for saying he trusted the MAGA domestic terrorists over Black Lives Matter protestors, and for his record of spreading Russian disinformation, is now the target of mockery over his false claim about how Greenland got its name.

There seems to be some GOP fascination with the autonomous territory that is a part of the Kingdom of Denmark. Although it spans more than 830,000 square miles, Greenland has a population of just 56,000 people. And President Donald Trump infamously wanted to purchase the island – perhaps because it’s the largest in the world – or trade it for Puerto Rico.

A New York Times profile lays waste to the Republican Senator from Wisconsin, accusing him of “assaulting the truth,” and calling him “the Republican Party’s foremost amplifier of conspiracy theories and disinformation.”

“Pushing false theories on the virus, the vaccine and the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Mr. Johnson, the Republican senator from Wisconsin, has absorbed his party’s transformation under Donald Trump.”

The Times say Johnson has a “predilection for anti-intellectualism,” and “is an all-access purveyor of misinformation on serious issues such as the pandemic and the legitimacy of American democracy, as well as invoking the etymology of Greenland as a way to downplay the effects of climate change.”

John “offered a false history of Greenland to dismiss the effects of global warming.”

“You know, there’s a reason Greenland was called Greenland,” Mr. Johnson told WKOW-TV in Madison back then. “It was actually green at one point in time. And it’s been, you know, since, it’s a whole lot whiter now so we’ve experienced climate change throughout geologic time.”

In the interview on Thursday, Mr. Johnson was still misinformed about the etymology of Greenland, which got its name from the explorer Erik the Red’s attempt to lure settlers to the ice-covered island.

“I could be wrong there, but that’s always been my assumption that, at some point in time, those early explorers saw green,” Mr. Johnson said. “I have no idea.”

It took little time for the mockery to begin.

 

This article has been updated to correctly state the square footage of Greenland.

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