MAGA Sen. Ron Johnson is facing backlash for his suggestion that Renée Nicole Good and Alex Pretti—both shot to death by ICE agents this year—were “trained activists” used as “martyrs” by the Democrats.
Johnson, 70, appeared on Sunday Morning Futures with Fox host Maria Bartiromo after being asked about Democrats’ refusal to support Trump’s planned changes to voter registration tied to DHS funding.
“Any kind of election integrity really is existential to their game plan of turning America into a one-party nation,” he began, before passionately outlining his conspiracy theory.
“They flooded this country with millions of illegal immigrants, put them in sanctuary cities to plus-up their numbers.”
Johnson then continued: “But here’s what they did even more deviously, they trained activists to obstruct justice, encourage them to put themselves in harm’s way knowing they could get harmed.”
Johnson then appeared to reference the two killings directly: “They got two martyrs, and then they use those martyrs as their excuse to try and and defund law enforcement, to defund the very agencies that are designed to clean up the mess they created.
“That’s what we’re dealing with, that’s who Democrats are. Republicans need to get united, and we need to make sure we blame Democrats because that’s where the fault lies.”
Johnson—whose net worth is estimated at $67.3 million as of this month—followed up his allegations with a call to refund the DHS up until 2029 amid yet another Trump shutdown.
While Bartiromo stayed silent in regard of Johnson’s inflammatory comments, viewers at home did not.
Alongside being called “sick” and “hateful” and a “lying piece of s--t” by one X user, one person commented: “The only ‘training’ anyone got was information about what ICE agents are *legally* allowed to do, and what observers are *legally* allowed to do. Which didn’t matter, because ICE didn’t even obey their own policies. ‘Obstruction’ became a catch-all to justify *anything*.”
“Is he implying they purposely got killed so there would be an argument to defund ICE? That is truly a new low. Even for him,” another viewer raged, with a similar response reading: “This is a vile and disgusting statement. Beyond belief.”
Renée Nicole Good, 37, was shot to death by ICE agent Jonathan Ross on Jan. 7 after dropping her son off at school. ICU nurse Alex Pretti , 37, was shot to death by two ICE agents on Jan. 24 while filming law enforcement and guarding a woman during protests.
Both incidents took place in Minneapolis. No charges have been filed in either case, and reports indicate federal authorities have blocked aspects of the investigations.
