The Daily Populous Wednesday June 22nd, 2022 evening edition
Authored by businessinsider.com and submitted by mountaintop111

A reporter spotted Sen. Ron Johnson pretending to be on his phone to dodge questions.

A group was trying to question Johnson after a Jan. 6 committee hearing.

The hearing included texts sent by a Johnson aide seemingly seeking to overturn the 2020 election.

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A reporter called out Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin for pretending to be on his cell phone in an apparent ploy to dodge questions after a Jan. 6 committee hearing Tuesday.

Johnson was walking away from the Capitol building when reporters tried to ask him questions about evidence the committee presented.

The evidence included text messages Sean Riley, Johnson's chief of staff, sent to an aide to then-Vice President Mike Pence, on January 6, 2021, after the riot at the Capitol disrupted the process of certifying Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election.

In the messages, Riley told Chris Hodgson — the Pence aide — that he wanted to present Pence with a list of fake electors who were prepared to ignore Biden's win and instead vote for Trump. Hodgson dismissed the request.

In the exchange with reporters, including Frank Thorp of NBC News, Johnson claimed he was busy with a call so he couldn't take questions about his knowledge of the events.

"How much did you know about what your chief of staff was doing with the alternate slates of the electors?" Thorp asked.

"I'm on the phone right now," Johnson replied.

"No you're not. I can see your phone. I can see your screen," Thorp said.

Johnson then put his phone down and addressed their questions, dismissing the evidence as a "non-story."

Johnson claimed he wasn't aware of the messages sent by his aide, calling it a "staff-to-staff exchange."

"I was basically, you know, unaware of it," he said.

The Jan. 6 committee has focused in its public hearings on the figures behind the elaborate, and at times chaotic, fake-elector scheme.

The plan involved replacing the slate of electors states sent to reflect the voting in their states with people who had agreed to ignore the legitimate results and instead vote for Trump in the Electoral College.

A key figure in the scheme was John Eastman, a Republican attorney, who falsely claimed that Pence had the authority to reject the election results on Jan. 6, opening the way for the fake-elector ploy.

Pence disagreed, and after the disruption of the riot, the certification continued.

oldbastardbob on June 22nd, 2022 at 13:19 UTC »

So all the criminals are aiming to do a Reagan and throw their staffers, who were no doubt operating under orders from above, under the Jan. 6th investigation bus.

Seems about right for a bunch of self-serving spoiled brats who will lie, cheat, and steal to stay in office.

Maybe we should re-evaluate the benefits from the positions of Senator and Representative if you can get so rich from winning the job that you lose all ethics, morals, and reason and become someone who will entertain destroying the country just to win office.

FaustVictorious on June 22nd, 2022 at 12:29 UTC »

Ron Johnson is a traitor and a coward.

mountaintop111 on June 22nd, 2022 at 12:08 UTC »

Here is the video of Ron Johnson, pretending to be on his phone, when the reporter called him out for faking a phone call, just to avoid questions:

https://youtu.be/IxywEn3fvCo?t=57

The best part is, watch the female staffer of Ron Johnson on the left. You can see her smirking when Ron Johnson is caught by the reporter, lol.