GOP senator responds to Ron Johnson BLM comments: ‘He’s going to speak for himself’

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) on Sunday stopped short of condemning his colleague Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) for saying that he might have felt unsafe if Black Lives Matter protesters or far-left antifa activists had stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6.

“Well, he’s going to speak for himself. You know this, George. You spent time on the Hill. Every member speaks for themselves, and I’m telling you what I believe,” Barrasso told George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week.”

Johnson said in an interview Thursday that he did not feel unsafe during the storming of the Capitol on Jan. by supporters of former President Trump but that he might have if the rioters had been affiliated with Black Lives Matter or antifa.

“I knew those are people that love this country, that truly respect law enforcement, would never do anything to break a law, and so I wasn’t concerned,” Johnson said on “The Joe Pags Show.” He added, “Had the tables been turned and [former] President Trump won the election and those were tens of thousands of Black Lives Matter and antifa protesters, I might have been a little concerned.”

Johnson’s remarks were met with a flurry of criticism, much of which called his comparison of the groups racist.