Senate Homeland Security Committee member Ron Johnson, R-Wis., railed against the “unequal application of justice” he sees between the suspects involved in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot and those involved in Antifa and Black Lives Matter protests in cities like Philadelphia, Portland, New York City and Washington over the past year that devolved into criminal activity.
On “Life, Liberty & Levin,” host Mark Levin pointed to a letter authored by Johnson, along with Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., and three other Republicans that formally questioned Attorney General Merrick Garland on the discrepancies in “potential unequal justice” under the law being applied to both camps.
Johnson and Tuberville’s letter noted in part that of the hundreds of suspects catalogued in a DOJ online database chronicling Capitol riot arrests, no such focus has been given to the suspects involved in repeated acts of alleged criminal behavior during the Black Lives Matter demonstrations across the country after the May 2020 death of George Floyd.
Referencing how some Capitol riot suspects have been held in strict confinement conditions, the letter also sought to have Garland publicize the conditions Antifa suspects are or were held in.
Johnson told Levin that he, Tuberville, Sens. Mike Lee of Utah, Rick Scott of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas, were the only signatories to the letter likely because the media tends to “slaughter and attack” whoever voices concerns or a contrasting narrative to the one put out by Democrats about such events.
“The fact that I just question the narrative that there were thousands of armed insurrections intent on overthrowing the government; you’ve seen how that’s worked out for me,” he remarked.
“So our colleagues say look at that and decide they don’t want to touch that issue with a 10-foot pole. But this is highly alarming. Every American should be concerned when we see the unequal administration of justice.”
Johnson praised Fox News host Tucker Carlson for chronicling the urban violence wracking New York, Philadelphia and elsewhere over the summer and fall of 2020, pointing out that the press rightfully covered attacks on police by right-wing Capitol riot suspects, but have had little to say about attacks on the NYPD and other officers throughout the past several months by left-wing rioters and Antifa members.
“Tucker has shown these videos of people being beaten to a pulp during the summer riots, and it doesn’t even get covered,” he said, tabulating 500 separate left-wing riots compared to the singular incursion at the Capitol.
“They want to sweep all that under the rug and just concentrate on what we all condemned, by the way, what happened in the Capitol. I wasn’t happy with that. I found that [Capitol] violence repugnant, and the racial slurs repulsive. I condemn those actions. I want those individuals prosecuted the full extent of the law,” Johnson reaffirmed.
“But I don’t want the media and I don’t want Democrats and politicians painting with a broad brush that just because, you know, in a hundred or a couple of hundred people assaulted law enforcement, that somehow 75 million Americans that voted for Donald Trump are somehow suspected domestic terrorists.”
Johnson also voiced concern over the death of Ashli Babbitt, a veteran and protester who illegally broke into the Capitol among the rest of the suspects on Jan. 6.
“She wasn’t carrying a weapon. She wasn’t threatening anybody. She was in the Capitol building and she was killed,” Levin noted, adding that the law enforcement officer who shot and killed her has not been identified and reportedly cleared of wrongdoing.
“Well, we certainly didn’t hear that when the tables were turned,” replied Johnson. “Again, it’s the concern about the unequal application of justice and a lot of concern.”
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The Wisconsin lawmaker, who hasn’t said if he will seek reelection in 2022, went on to note that much of the activism and property damage committed by Black Lives Matter and Antifa was “celebrated.”
“Black Lives Matter is a violent Marxist, anti-American organization and has done precious little to go into the Black communities and help Black communities build; help Black communities with school choice, [and] help Black communities at all,” he said.
“It wants to overthrow the country,” Johnson added of BLM.
Johnson condemned city officials who have painted their streets with “Black Lives Matter” – which has happened in Orlando, New York City, Washington and elsewhere across the country.
In Orlando, the BLM mural on Rosalind Avenue downtown was defaced at least twice by drivers who appeared to do a burnout to apply treadmarks to the words, while in New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio helped paint the slogan in the 700 block of Fifth Avenue – outside the business headquarters of his frequent critic, former President Donald Trump.
Trump later condemned de Blasio, saying the street painting was an affront to the NYPD and denigrated “this luxury avenue” that also features the Plaza Hotel, St. Patrick’s Cathedral and several high end shopping attractions.
“When you have mayors painting the name of Black Lives Matter in the streets, when you have the [President Joe Biden] saying the gravest threat we face as a nation is White supremacy, and then you see how they’re treating these could be up to 400 people at the Department of Justice [arrested after the Capitol riot] as if they’re all Klansmen or they’re all neo-Nazis.”
Johnson predicted the “vast majority” of Capitol riot suspects are not members of the KKK or similar groups, and noted that a previous, related narrative about Trump forcibly clearing Lafayette Park behind the White House to visit St. John’s Church while clutching a Bible, was misreported by the media according to a new document released by Department of the Interior Inspector General Mark Lee Greenblatt.
