CLAY: Our friend, Senator Ron Johnson, from the great state of Wisconsin, joins us now. Of course, all of you need to be rushing out to the polls soon to make sure that he is in the Senate for six more years, but I want to start with the inflation data, Senator, that came out today. 8.3% inflation, record high cost for many different products out there in many of our lives.

The White House in less than 30 minutes is having a celebration on the lawn for how they are handling inflation, thanks to the inappropriately named Inflation Reduction Act. How tone-deaf is Joe Biden when it comes to inflation and the chunk that it continues to take out of everybody’s paycheck all over this country?

SEN. JOHNSON: He may not be tone-deaf; he just can’t talk about it. They can’t talk about the disastrous results of all their policies. I mean, he is the root cause of all the pain that Americans are feeling, you know, in — I don’t think we’re real good at really processing percentages; so, I think a better way of looking at inflation in Wisconsin, it’s costing a family $673 more per month because of Joe Biden’s inflation.

Nationally, it’s $715 per month. I know a dollar that you held at the start of the Biden administration is now worth only 88.3 cents. So, if you apply that to let’s say a senior on a fixed income with savings, you know, saving for retirement, let’s say that he stuck away a hundred thousand bucks just for ease of calculation, that hundred thousand dollars that they held at the start of the Biden administration is now worth only $88,300.

So, inflation is the Democrat tax on everybody, but it particularly hurts seniors, people at the lower end of the income spectrum, the very people that Democrats purport to want to represent and help, they’re crushing them it’s like a 12% tax on your savings in just the first, what, 19 months of this administration. It’s a disaster.

And that’s why they can’t talk about it. I think they’re well aware of it. They just can’t talk about it so, guys, all they have are lies, distortion, character assassination, the politics of personal destruction. And I’m on the receiving end of all of that in addition to $65 million being spent to try and take me out politically. So, I’ll need a lot of help. RonJohnsonforSenate.com if you want to save this U.S. Senate seat.

BUCK: Senator Johnson, it’s Buck. You know, there’s apparently a party of sorts, a celebration coming up here in just a few minutes where the White House is gonna be marking the — what is it — $750 billion spending and tax package that they passed under the Inflation Reduction Act misnomer. Who is the audience for this?

I mean, I’m kind of curious. Are they just going through the motions? Are they so condescending they think voters can’t figure out what a sham this whole thing is? Feels particularly brazen on the day that the CPI inflation number comes out to be spiking the football in the end zone when they’re really in the wrong end zone. I think that would be — Clay, that’s a safety, isn’t it?

CLAY: That’s very well played.

BUCK: Thank you.

SEN. JOHNSON: Well, I would say the lapdog media that are complicit, they are leftists themselves, they’re just playing to the media here, who they can pretty well rest assured they’ll carry their water. I remember when they passed the Inflation Reduction Act, the press dutiful reported this gonna reduce inflation, solve global warming.

It’s gonna spend $369 billion on green energy boondoggles like Solyndra. It will further spark inflation. Interesting about it too, I don’t think there was one economic organization, whether it’s universities, whether it’s CBO, that said this would reduce inflation at all. But again, the lapdog media, they just carry the Democrats’ water, which is part of the problem we have here, guys.

In a sane world with an unbiased media, this election wouldn’t even be close, these elections. We would be sweeping Democrats from power. But because they have the power of the mainstream media, the Big Tech media, social giants, they’re in this race. They shouldn’t be, but they are.

CLAY: Senator, building on that, I don’t know if you’ve seen this study, but we were talk about it a little bit earlier in the show, 41% of the American public still believes the Hunter Biden laptop is Russian disinformation, including 50% of Democrats, 27% of Republicans, and 47% of independents.

If you want to know what gaslighting looks like — I know you’ve been investigating this and dealing with it for a long time — but are you staggered that these lies could have such lasting impact that over four out of every 10 people in America right now still believe that the Russian disinformation lie is true?

SEN. JOHNSON: Well, I wish I could say I was shocked, but I’m not. I understand the power of the media. They’re very powerful. I mean, again, they’re still pushing the fact that the vaccines are safe and effective. Yeah. I wish they were a hundred percent safe and effective, but they’re not.

They’re not particularly effective. Again, I’d like to see their data which actually reduces the severity of the symptoms. They won’t share the data with us. But, no, the media is unbelievably powerful, and that’s why I say, if we had an unbiased media, these elections wouldn’t even be close.

The Democrats have driven America into the ditch. Open borders, the flood of illegal immigrants, the deadly drugs, 40-year high inflation, record gas prices. By the way, increased on purpose. Get you into a electric vehicle that can, what, drive 150, 170 miles before you have to recharge it for 30 minutes?

And then of course in California they’re gonna outlaw gas-powered vehicles the same day they announce that, tell people you can’t plug in your electric vehicles. Think of the control the electric vehicle give people like Gavin Newsom or President Biden. People need to be very concerned about Democrats are doing to this country. This fundamental transformation of America is fundamentally destroying it and destroying our freedoms.

BUCK: We’re speaking to Senator Ron Johnson. Senator, the subpoenas that have been flying recently from Merrick Garland’s DOJ going after Trump associates, a few cell phones have been seized. You understand the nature and character of the deep state and those machinations.

You’ve had FBI whistleblowers come out recently as well. You’re quite familiar with that situation. So, what do you think the endgame is? We just talked to Julie Kelly about this before, a legal analyst and writer. What are the DOJ folks under this Biden regime planning, in your mind?

SEN. JOHNSON: Well, the endgame is tyranny if we let them get away with it. The endgame for the Democrats is one-party state control. That’s what they want. That’s why they want to nationalize elections; so they can mail ballots to everybody, so they can ballot harvest, and they can make sure that everybody’s coming in this country illegally that they let in, they’ll vote for them.

So, no, people need to understand — what’s interesting is when you talk to legal immigrants from around the world, people who have come from socialist and communist states, they are frightened by what they’re seeing in America today. They say, “This is what I came to escape.”

And this is — we’re beyond the beginning stages of a less free society, of a tyranny state which is what we ought to be on guard about, what we ought to be protecting against, which is what this election is all about.

CLAY: So, Senator Johnson, you’re gonna be in an election that you’ve decided is — said is gonna be decided on the razor’s edge. What could people do to support you, and what are you hearing from people as you travel all over Wisconsin?

SEN. JOHNSON: Well, RonJohnsonforSenate.com. Again, they’ve already spent $65 million — you know, Democrats hate dark money until it’s being spent to, you know, prop them up. Again, what I’m hearing, you know, the list of horribles — the open border, the inflation, the record gas prices.

But even more basic than that, I mean, I literally have people coming up at events with tears in their eyes if not streaming down their cheeks saying, we have to save this country. I mean, it is insane. I mean, people never thought they’d actually have to defend the benefit of having a mom and a dad, of a nuclear family.

They never thought they’d have to be pushing back on school administrators who want to inject our children with gender-blocking drugs without telling their parents or they’d be witnessing biological males competing against our girls and then expecting to shower with them in their locker room.

This is insane to us, but it’s not insane to the left. It’s what they’re pushing on America. And again, the mainstream media, they’re just trying to normalize all this and pave the way for a totalitarian state.

BUCK: Senator Ron Johnson. Always appreciate you making the time for us, sir. Thanks for calling in.

SEN. JOHNSON: Have a great day.