Monday, April 29, 2019

With Walker sidelined, Johnson promoted to #1 WI-Trump enabler

While struggling during his red-meat Green Bay buffet Saturday night with Glenn Grothman's identity, Trump went out of his way to praise GOP Sen. Ron Johnson who had been graced with a special presidential perk: a ride back home from DC - - photo, here - - on Air Force One.

Grace notes - - along with statesmanship, sanity and civility - - were in short supply the rest of the night.


Given all the favors and props thrown his way - - speech transcript, video clips, here - - a truly 'tough,' principled and informed Ron Johnson

Ron Johnson, official portrait, 112th Congress.jpg
 - - apparently now Trump's official Senate immigration tough-guy - - would have immediately disassociated himself from Trump when he demeaned Johnson colleagues and embraced the demagogue's persona by telling attendees repeatedly they were victims 'betrayed' by unnamed greedy people and corrupt forces:
By the way, Saturday night, is there any place that's more fun than a Trump rally? Can you imagine Sleepy Joe, Crazy Bernie, you look at the candidates, right? I think Pocahontas, she's finished, she's out, she's gone.
So we're delighted to be joined tonight by many incredible Wisconsin Republican leaders. A really great friend of mine, a man who is really the focus of what's going on in so much of Washington.
A very tough guy, very strong guy. I call him Wisconsin tough and I don't even know if you know it and I don't know if you appreciate it, but I'm telling you he's really good. Ron Johnson. Thank you, Ron, a great job. He's doing a big job now, I can tell you that he's working on some things that are very important....
Nothing is more dangerous than the Democrats, crazy immigration agenda...
Ron, you got to get that deal done. You'll get it done. Got to get it done...Ron Johnson's going to do it, Ron, congratulations. Stand up, Ron. Will you get that done for me, please. No get it done for Wisconsin, OK. He'll do it. He'll do it...
...as citizens, as patriots and as Americans, you joined our movement, the greatest movement in the history of our country because you rejected the failures and the betrayals of the past, you were betrayed. 
You were betrayed by dishonest people. You were betrayed by stupid people. You served down a corrupt system that enriched itself at your expense. You protected your family, you defended your dignity, you recaptured your destiny, and you took back your country with that great election two and a half years ago.
Of course, Johnson the next morning on NBC was 'right-back-atcha, POTUS,' praising Trump's rally speech and using all of Trump's hollow and false, post-Muller report self-exoneration:
I understand the president's frustration. And I also understand the president's supporters' frustration of the media just continuing, continuing this witch hunt. It's ridiculous.


2 comments:

MadCityVoter said...

I thought it was very telling that when Andrea Mitchell kept on pressing Sen. Johnson regarding the Mueller report's evidence of Trump campaign and personal malfeasance, Johnson fell back suddenly to the the supposedly great economy and "business investment" (not clear what he meant by that or where he's getting his statistics; this being Dumb Ron Johnson he probably has no idea either):

"SEN. RON JOHNSON: Maybe it's because I understand the president's frustration at being subjected to a witch hunt for two years. Now, I was in that rally yesterday. It was a venue filled, a record crowd, full of energized people, who love this country and who, quite honestly, their support for President Trump is actually growing. So that's what I'm seeing. I'm seeing the economy grow by 3.2%. I'm seeing business investment averaging, over the last six -- nine quarters, at over 6%, when the last two years of President Obama was 0.6%. Ten times greater business investment, that's going to drive our economy for years to come. So again, I'm looking at the results of this administration. And I also think about what we could've accomplished, had this witch hunt not been occurring for the -- "

And there you have it -- the real corruption that's plaguing American democracy: capitalists and investors who would sell out every principle this country was founded on for a better ROI. Profits are king in Ron Johnson's world, and as far as he's concerned King Donald delivers. And let's not even mention the juicy tax break for wealth held the way Johnson holds it. *Someone* in that arena has been doing *very* well in the Trump economy, thank you very much, and it wasn't the "energized people" in the screaming crowd of 10,000 deluded fools (by comparison the Kohl Center holds 17,000).

By the way, at the end of the interview the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security first admits that it "didn't surprise" him that the Russians were using social media to influence the 2016 election, then claims that it is "hard to really police" social media (especially if you don't try), then pivots to pretending that the only kind of election hacking that matters is changing vote totals, which is "almost impossible," no thanks to DHS. But I guess we should all be reassured with Dumb Ron on the job.

It really was a classic interview. Thanks for linking to the transcript.

James Rowen said...

Thanks for the comment. Appreciate your close reading of the transcript.