Right-wing Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) claimed a debate audience burst into laughter during one of his answers last week because college students in the crowd were fed “leftist propaganda.”
Someone dared to “let in” college students to watch the televised debate at Marquette University last Thursday in Milwaukee, Johnson complained Sunday to Fox News host Brian Kilmeade.
“My guess ... college students” in the crowd laughed at him, Johnson said.
“Let’s face it, our colleges today aren’t exactly teaching history. They’re really not talking about the relevant things that students really oughta learn in college,” Johnson continued. “They’re being taught leftist propaganda.”
The debate audience burst out laughing when Johnson claimed at one point that he had been “set up” by the FBI.
Johnson was responding to an attack by his Democratic opponent Mandela Barnes, Wisconsin’s lieutenant governor, who pointed out that the senator was warned by the FBI in 2019 that Kremlin operatives had been feeding him disinformation in a plot to turn him into a Russian asset.
“We cannot trust Sen. Johnson to protect democracy abroad because we can’t even trust Sen. Johnson to protect democracy here at home,” Barnes charged.
Johnson’s retort, which greatly amused the audience: “The FBI set me up with a corrupt briefing and then leaked that to smear me.”
Johnson is widely regarded as the most vulnerable senator in the upcoming election, but he has recently been inching ahead in polls after focusing on crime.