Sen. Ron Johnson called out President Biden and former President Barack Obama on Thursday over recent remarks the Democrats made about him and fellow Republicans.
During a campaign stop in Minoqua, Wisconsin, Johnson brought up Biden’s Wednesday night speech, in which he accused “MAGA Republicans” of “lies repeated over and over to generate a cycle of hate, vitriol, and even violence.”
“I heard the divider in chief gave another one of his little angry speeches last night,” Johnson said. “By way, classic, classic liberal tactics, right? Falsely accuse your political opponents of doing exactly what you do.”
Johnson went on to go after Democrats for making Republicans defend core values like family, for supporting gender identity-based policies, and for driving inflation by opposing fossil fuels, leading to rising gas prices.
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The Wisconsin Republican then responded to Obama, who on Saturday in Milwaukee spoke in support of Johnson’s opponent Mandela Barnes. In that address, Obama went after Johnson, accusing him of wanting to cut Social Security, something that Johnson denies.
“Some of you here are on Social Security. Some of your parents are on Social Security. Some of your grandparents are on Social Security,” Obama said. “You know why they have Social Security? Because they worked for it. They worked hard jobs for it. They have chapped hands for it. They had long hours and sore backs and bad knees to get that Social Security. And if Ron Johnson does not understand that – if he understands giving tax breaks for private planes more than he understands making sure that seniors who’ve worked all their lives are able to retire with dignity and respect – he’s not the person who’s thinking about you and knows you and sees you, and he should not be your senator from Wisconsin!”
Obama continued, “I mean the message he’s sending is pretty clear. If you’re related to him, if you donate to his campaign, you get a deal. If you’re not, you’re out of luck and you’re on your own.”
The reference to Johnson’s relatives may have been an allusion to a recent report that his adult children purchased a private plane after the senator supported former President Donald Trump’s tax plan. The plan allowed purchasers of private planes to write off the purchase amount on their tax returns.
It was “a couple days” before he heard Obama’s “angry screed against me and my children,” Johnson said Thursday. “What’s he so angry about? The guy made multiple millions of dollars off being president. He splits his time between Martha’s Vineyard and Washington, D.C. Then he comes in here and accuses a guy like me who lives in Oshkosh, who’s traveled tirelessly around the state for the time I’ve been in office … and he thinks I’m out of touch?”
Fox News Power Rankings currently rate the Wisconsin Senate race as leaning Republican.