Ron 'Secret Society' Johnson Claims He Is 'Certainly Not' Trying To Discredit FBI

[DonViejo]

Source: Talking Points Memo



By Nicole Lafond | January 25, 2018 9:47 am

After making the rounds on nearly every national cable news show this week to spout his belief in a “secret society” within the FBI, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told NPR Thursday that he’s “certainly not” trying to discredit the agency.

During an interview with Fox News Tuesday evening, Johnson first mentioned the “secret society” and claimed he had an informant that told him about secret meetings being held off-site after the 2016 election. He later dialed back on the “secret society” claim, saying he borrowed that terminology from a text exchange between two FBI officials who are at the center of a conservative firestorm over whether there’s an anti-Trump bias within the FBI.

Johnson was asked Thursday whether the “secret society” talk is part of a campaign by Republicans to discredit the FBI and special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into the Trump campaign and Russian meddling in the 2016 election. “Certainly not on my part. My part goes back three years, and the sham investigation into what I believe was a crime by Secretary Clinton,” he told NPR, referencing the Senate Intelligence Committee’s initial probe into then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server for official business.

He later added that he is going public with this information because he wants “transparency” and wants to make sure “the FBI is beyond reproach in terms of integrity.”



Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/johnson-certainly-not-trying-discredit-fbi

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The NPR interview may be heard at the link to the article at Talking Points Memo, above

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

1. Riiiigghhhtttt!!

[Augiedog]

2. He is considered the dumbest senator in Washington, so this is not surprising to Wisconsinites.

[Botany]

3. No what he meant to say it was about, "double secret probation."

" ... I believe was a crime by Secretary Clinton,” he told NPR, referencing the Senate Intelligence Committee’s initial probe into then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server for official business.

Oh please mother fucker exactly what crime did HRC commit?

[PatSeg]

4. Who on earth

is stupid enough to make an enemy of the FBI? Do these clowns have any idea what kind of resources the FBI has? You have to have absolutely nothing to hide if you set out to attack the FBI.

Obviously, I know many republicans would fit in the category of "stupid enough", but it still blows my mind.

[mr_lebowski]

12. They have Trump at the top who could just fire everyone there ...

if he really wanted to make it happen. Given the wholly-complicit GOP majority in Congress, there's nothing to stop him from doing so that I'm aware of ...

It's kinda funny though how in one breath he's insisting he's not impugning the FBI's integrity, then 2 fucking seconds later their investigation into Hillary's emails ... was a 'sham' investigation. Gee, THAT's not an accusation of misconduct at ALL!

Fcuking MORON.

You just didn't get the answer from them that you wanted, jackass. Tough Shit!

[PatSeg]

16. It is amazing to me,

how many useless, no talent idiots end up in congress. It is seems like people who have no abilities of any consequence run for congress. Aside from fooling their constituents, they have no redeeming qualities. This would account for all the Tea Party (now the Freedom Caucus) candidates.

Brings to mind Joe Walsh from Illinois who failed at everything he ever tried to do, so decided to run for office. Poor guy couldn't even hold on to that job.

[Freethinker65]

5. Stupid partisan hack...who cannot think two steps ahead.

When you mention a "secret society" from within the Justice Department/FBI and you are a sitting Senator, you should have known you would be asked to back up your accusations or be severely ridiculed.

Sen. Johnson has effectively been programmed, like so many GOP faithful, to have an insatiable hatred of anything Clinton and that obsession makes him the perfect GOP uncritical thinking zombie. A thinking person, regardless of poilitical leaning, would be able to figure out the "secret society" rumor was nonsensical, or at least remain too skeptical about it to go all in.

[Still In Wisconsin]

6. That's our Senator Dumbass... sigh.

And to think Wisconsin elected this guy over Russ Feingold... twice. It would appear that my cousins from Chicagoland who made fun of my UW degree (three of them went to Northwestern, one to Duke) may have been onto something when they said people from Wisconsin are stupid hicks.

[cstanleytech]

7. Bullshit, his goal was clearly to try and undermine the FBI.

[Firestorm49]

8. Which Way Is Up

More baseless rhetoric from the party of Lincoln - useless babble without a shred of proof. Come on, Ron, put your money where your mouth is an cough up the facts to support the claim, and if you are right, I will apologize for calling you incendiary comments rubbish.

[dbackjon]

9. Why do you hate Law Enforcement, Johnson?

[radhika]

10. I totally give up on WI

Ron Johnson (R) defeated Progressive D incumbent Russ Feingold for Senate TWICE
Union-busting (R) Scott Walker has been Governor since 2010 and survived a high-profile recall bid
Paul Ryan (R) has been in Congress since 1999
Republicans are the majority in the State Legislature

But media still refers to WI a Dem-leaning state. Go figure.

[Mr. Ected]

11. The critical issue is that he advanced a FOX/RT News talking point

And gave it momentary gravity and significance due to his status as a "Senator".

That's enough for the right wing propaganda machine to continue to churn it out as factual, like Benghazi, like Seth Rich, like Hillary's emails.

The base is brainwashed and gobbles this stuff up.

They'll attribute his turnaround to "the liberal media forcing him to walk his remarks back".

You can't lose when you rig the game.

[marble falls]

13. Too bad he himself by shooting off his mouth on Fox isn't " beyond reproach in terms of integrity.

[Paladin]

14. Own it, Johnson. You fucking chickenshit. (nt)

[awesomerwb1]

15. This was done on purpose

-put this garbage out there for Faux , Twitter/russia to run with it.....then say he didn't really mean it that way or blame the "fake news media". Meanwhile Faux and Twitter/russia (and other nut jobs) spread the disinformation/conspiracy theory as best they can with no correction or clarification.

[pbmus]

17. Hey Ron, your actions and words are close to sedition..