Senate Homeland Security chairman: World is too dangerous to elect Hillary

CLEVELAND — Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson declared Tuesday that the world is too dangerous to elect Hillary Clinton as president.

{mosads}Speaking at the Republican National Convention Tuesday night, Johnson (R-Wis.) argued that Democrats cannot be counted on to take a hard line against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and said Clinton’s handling of the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, shows the former secretary of State cannot be trusted to lead.

“She looked those family members right in the eye and then she lied,” Johnson said, referring to allegations that Clinton told the families of the victims of the attack that the violence was sparked by an incendiary video. The attack was later determined to have been premeditated and not caused by the video.  

“Hillary’s cold, calculating lying continues. If we can’t trust her to tell us the truth, how can we possibly trust her to lead America?” he asked.

He argued that the nation won’t confront the threat of Islamic terrorism if voters elect Clinton to the White House and put Democrats in charge of the Senate.

He noted that his Democratic challenger, former three-term Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), whom he defeated in 2010, was the only member of the Senate to vote against granting expanded surveillance authority to law enforcement agencies through the 2001 Patriot Act.

He also highlighted Feingold’s various votes against the annual defense authorization bill.

“Now he’s asking Wisconsinites to give him a fourth term, just as Hillary Clinton is asking America to give her Obama’s third term. The world is simply too dangerous to elect either of them,” he said.

Michael Tyler, a spokesman for Feingold, pushed back against the criticism, claiming late Tuesday that Johnson has failed to offer a concrete plan to combat ISIS.

“Johnson is failing to offer Wisconsinites specifics and he’s failing to show Wisconsin’s middle class and working families that he’s listening to them at all,” he said.

Johnson is the most vulnerable Senate Republican incumbent to brave Donald Trump’s high disapproval rating to attend the party convention.

He initially told reporters he would not attend the convention, but later changed his mind.

A Republican official earlier in the day said Johnson’s appearance on the dais would be beneficial, given the greater concern over terrorism and homeland security in the wake of recent attacks in Nice, France; Orlando; and Dallas.

Another reason cited was Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R) — a fellow Wisconsinite — chairmanship of the convention.