Claire McCaskill: Ron Johnson is an ’embarrassing tool’

Former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) lambasted her former colleague Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) Tuesday morning on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” calling him an “embarrassing tool.”

“Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough was talking about how President Trump has continued to shake the hands of supporters, despite the recommendations from his coronavirus task force not to do so, when McCaskill steered the conversation to another topic: Johnson and his committee’s investigation into Hunter Biden, the son of former Vice President Joe Biden.

“Allow me to pop off on Ron Johnson here. What a joke! What an embarrassing tool!” she told Scarborough.

“He is chairman of the Homeland Security Committee! Right? He has jurisdiction over coronavirus and the federal response. Is he calling a hearing? Is he trying to figure out why first responders’ tests aged on a shelf in the state of Washington until they were no longer good? Is he going to tell people why they can’t get the test? No,” she continued.

“Even though it’s not in his committee’s jurisdiction — the Judiciary Committee is not issuing subpoenas on Hunter Biden. The Foreign Affairs Committee is not issuing subpoenas on Hunter Biden. No! This joke, Ron Johnson, is actually politicizing a committee that right now should have one focus: What is going on with the United States of America’s federal response to the coronavirus? People should be really angry about this,” McCaskill added.

On Monday, Johnson, chairman of Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, signaled that he would move forward with a vote this week on a subpoena that is related to his investigation into Hunter Biden and the Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings. Senate Democrats have openly opposed the probe and subpoena, but it is expected that the measure to authorize the subpoena will pass.

“We have conducted our investigations methodically, responsibly, and largely out of public view,” Johnson wrote to committee ranking member Gary Peters (D-Mich.) in a letter, which was released on Monday. “We have gone to great lengths to receive briefings and review and verify all information received by the Committee before making any of it public.

Peters has asked for the committee to receive a classified briefing regarding the subject of the subpoena from the FBI before voting on the subpoena. However, the voted is scheduled for Wednesday.