Sen. Johnson: Biden Has Weakened America

CLAY: We are joined by the man that Wisconsin has to send back to the Senate, Senator Ron Johnson, and Senator Johnson, appreciate you joining us. You just teed off on the Biden administration policies and how they’ve weakened the U.S. and emboldened adversaries. Let me play this for you, then I’ll bring you in.

SEN. JOHNSON (archive): It’s in those early days of the Biden administration when he canceled the Keystone XL pipeline, opened up our borders, started pushing for out-of-control deficit spending, which has sparked 7.5% inflation to 40 year high. All these policy decisions have weakened America, it’s emboldened our enemies, it’s basically tempted tyrants to take advantage of the situation. So you have now a situation where tyrants are on the rise and we’re trying to react. What this administration has done is — virtually across the board — enact policies that have weakened this country.

CLAY: Senator Johnson, I want to start with this, the breaking news that I’m sure you’ve seen. The Biden administration is extending the mask mandate for federal travel for airplanes, for buses, for trains, all these things. You guys just had the State of the Union. Nobody wore masks. Masks, mercifully, are finally disappearing because they don’t work. How moronic is it for them to be extending the mask mandate on airplane and air travel?

SEN. JOHNSON: Very moronic. I was in that Commerce Committee hearing when the airline heads not only said that they didn’t make sense, but they talked about the science. They’ve done extensive studies of an air cabin. HEPA filters in airline cabin probably one of the cleanest breaths of air you’re gonna take. So it’s completely ridiculous. But I think what it really shows is that the people who have pushed all this on America will never admit they’re wrong. This is one of the ways they I guess confirmed they weren’t wrong, they continue it even though it’s completely moronic.

BUCK: Senator, it’s Buck. I gotta ask, when do you think they’re actually gonna stop with all that madness? Is it going to go away, or could you foresee them saying, “Just to be on the safe side,” as if that makes any sense they’ll keep this going all the way up, perhaps, to the midterm elections?

SEN. JOHNSON: Yeah, again, I think part of the reaction is, this helps confirm the fact, in their minds, and hopefully for the public in their minds, that they were never wrong, that they’ve been right all along, and they just need to do this just to make it that much “safer.” What is really a tragedy about how they’ve responded to covid as relates to masks is I don’t care how good an N95 mask might work, if you change it out three or four times a day, tight fighting on an adult.

I’ll tell you where it would never work is on a child. Have you seen children wear masks? This was obvious from the start that masks would never work on children. No matter how effective they might be on an adult or health care worker, they would never work on children. And yet we made our children do this for two years, delayed speech, denied them the ability to read the expression on their teachers’ face, the smile of their classmates.

The harm we have caused our children, we’ve put them into a state of fear with immature minds. I mean, what we have done to our children is a travesty, which was one of the reasons the people who have foisted this on us — the covid cartels, the covid gods — they can’t afford to be proven wrong. And I’ve said this in the past. They have the power ’cause they are the legacy media, they are the Big Tech social media giants, they are Big Pharma and everybody else.

They’ve got the power to make it very difficult if they can be proven wrong. Let’s face it. You guys are outliers. You’re talk radio. I wish every American would listen to you, but they don’t. They listen to the legacy media. That’s where a lot of people get the news and we still have a lot of our fellow citizens in this data sphere that they whipped up and they’ve been very effective at maintaining the state of fear.

CLAY: Well, we appreciate all of the people listening in the state of with I say including Milwaukee where we are number one right now and they need to make sure that they get out and work so you get reelected because you’re speaking the truth, and so many people are spreading lies. Speaking of lies, 7.9% inflation rate now, Senator, and the Biden administration is shifting all the blame now, and they’re saying, “Hey, the reason this is occurring is because of Vladimir Putin.” What do you think of the shifting blames as to why we are at a 40-year high for inflation?

SEN. JOHNSON: Well, it’s total BS, but it’s expected. It’s obviously not true. We had gasoline prices up over a buck before Putin ever invaded Ukraine. This is the result of their war on fossil fuel. We canceled the Keystone XL pipeline. Gee, you think that’s gonna reduce the price of energy? This is the result of their policies. This is their policy goal! They have a war on fossil fuels.

You listen to the clips, the video clips of Joe Biden during the campaign; he was absolutely dedicated to ending the use of fossil fuels. So when you have an economy dependent on fossil fuel, you restrict the ability for people to produce fossil fuel, what do you think’s gonna happen to the price? And you just mentioned the 7.9% inflation rate. That’s accelerating.

It’s not going away, because the price of energy flows through every product, and it’s to a certain extent, the product price say lagging indicator. The cost of housing went up over the last 12 months. The rents are just being changed now. That’s gonna spark additional inflation. This isn’t going away anytime soon. Of course, then just the massive deficit spending. the Democrats still are proposing. Here’s how much the press is in the tank for the Democrats. They’re pretty well parroting what Biden says. “Yeah, the solution to inflation is Build Back Better. Let’s do some more deficit spending!” This is beyond absurd, beyond moronic.

BUCK: We’re speaking to Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. Senator, how concerned are you that this Biden administration could get dragged further into the Ukraine conflict than is wise and we could find ourselves in an open conflict with Russia? It seems like the no-fly zone idea has gotten pushback from this White House but people are still concerned. How worried are you that they’re gonna mishandle this or what do you think happens here?

SEN. JOHNSON: Well, unfortunately I agree with President Obama’s defense secretary, Robert Gates, who said that Joe Biden was wrong on every major foreign policy issue for the last 40 years and his record remains unbroken. He’s surrounding himself these exact same advisers who were advising him prior to those 40 years as well. So, yeah, I’ve got a great deal of concern.

He obviously didn’t respond appropriately to try and prevent Putin from invading Ukraine. That would have been a successful response. It’s pretty galling in the State of the Union, basically taking a victory lap, “Hey, look at the coalition people that are now supporting Ukraine once it’s been invaded!” No, our European allies are just waking up to the fact that Russia’s that much closer to their doorstep and all of a sudden they’re reevaluating their policies as relates to their own deference.

You only have to look at what he’s doing, crawling to Iran. You realize the U.S. is not negotiating directly with Iran. They refused to meet with us. We’re actually having Russia and China negotiate on our behalf. So, do you think that’s maybe perceived as weakness by Russia? You think maybe that’s one of the many factors that played into Putin’s calculation where he said, “Yeah, this might be a good time to invade Ukraine because America and the West are weak”?

CLAY: Senator Johnson, what do you expect to happen with the Build Back Better? I know that it’s been tabled because of Joe Manchin, but you made an important point there that there are arguments still being trotted out that by using parts of the Build Back Better agenda they could try and reduce inflation, which is total nonsense. But do you think that there is likely to still be a big domestic spending bill rolling out between now and election season, or do you think the Democrats are going to end up acknowledging that they really can’t get much more done? Where are we, based on your analysis of Senate movement?

SEN. JOHNSON: Well, here’s my concern, is they don’t want to be perceived as failing. They all want to spend money, and they all want to increase Americans’ taxes, and so I’m concerned that they just mind find in their own minds a sweet spot where they can raise people’s taxes enough to allow for just enough spending, call it deficit neutral, and go and pass something like that. So I’m highly concerned about that. But one thing I do want all of your listeners to understand is that inflation is the Democrat tax on the middle class, on the working middle class.

CLAY: No doubt.

SEN. JOHNSON: As much as Joe Biden said he wasn’t gonna increase taxes on anybody, no. This is the Democrat tax on the middle class, on every American.

BUCK: Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. Senator, thanks so much for coming by Clay and Buck show. Appreciate it.

SEN. JOHNSON: Can I mention my website? RonJohnsonForSenate.com. I’m gonna need a lot of help. I’ve already been outspent $13 million to 2; so RonJohnsonForSenate.com. I truly appreciate the help.

BUCK: Absolutely. Thank you, Senator.

CLAY: Gotta get those votes in for him. That’s a major battleground election.

BUCK: Gotta win that seat. Yep.

CLAY: Have to win that. Have to win it for him.