Republican Sen. Ron Johnson’s exchange at a Feb. 8 Senate confirmation hearing with Biden nominee Deborah Lipstadt was pure gold.
Lipstadt, a historian who has authored several books about the Holocaust, has been tapped to lead the State Department’s Office of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism. The Washington Post describes her as an “authority on antisemitism.”
If confirmed, Lipstadt, 75, will serve in a diplomatic role, which is slightly ironic given the ease with which she insulted the senator from Wisconsin in a March 2021 tweet.
Speaking with radio host Joe Pagliarulo the previous day, Johnson said he had not been worried during the Jan. 6 Capitol incursion, but he would have been had the rioters been members of Black Lives Matter or antifa, according to Haaretz.
He told Pagliarulo: “I knew those were people who love this country, that truly respect law enforcement, would never do anything to break the law, so I wasn’t concerned.”
“Now, had the tables been turned, and Joe — this is going to get me in trouble — had the tables been turned and President Trump won the election and tens of thousands of Black Lives Matter and antifa, I might have been a little concerned,” the senator added.
Johnson came under vicious attack by the left following those remarks.
Attaching the Haaretz article, Lipstadt took to Twitter and wrote the following:
This is white supremacy/nationalism. Pure and simple. GOP Senator Johnson slammed as ‘white nationalist sympathizer’ after race remarks https://t.co/9vaBQsqK7J
— Deborah E. Lipstadt (@deborahlipstadt) March 14, 2021
Johnson began his exchange with Lipstadt by citing Biden’s inaugural promise to “heal” the divisions in America and asked her if she thought he had been successful. She replied, “I think not. I think there are deep divisions.”
He agreed. Next he told her about a hands-on program he had initiated with a Wisconsin pastor that has already transformed the lives of hundreds of people, the majority of them black.
So far, so good.
“A way not to heal, I think, is what’s happening on social media,” Johnson said calmly. “It was interesting to hear [Senate Majority Leader] Sen. [Chuck] Schumer talk about the malicious poison … And it comes from across the political spectrum. We need to all condemn it.
“Let me ask you a question. If somebody came up to you privately, quietly and said, ‘You’re a racist. You’re a white supremacist. You’re a white nationalist.’ By the way, I do not believe you are. I would never assume that because certainly growing up, when I was being taught the Commandment that says, ‘Do not bear false witness,’ my Lutheran catechism says, ‘always put the best construction on things.’ In other words, always assume the best about people.”
“How would you feel if somebody just privately called you a racist?” he asked.
“First of all, I would say they’re wrong. Second of all, I would disagree with them,” Lipstadt responded. “And, as I said earlier, but I want to reiterate, that even in my critiques of people, I’m very careful never to ascribe to the person — .”
Johnson abruptly cuts her off and says, “I heard that. I thought that was interesting.”
Then he goes for the jugular: “So you never criticize the person, but that’s not true. What you just testified there is false. Because not only did you go on … First of all, you don’t know me. You don’t know a lot of the people that you have accused online in front of millions of people. You have engaged in the malicious poison. You’ve accused people you don’t know of very vile things. Wouldn’t you agree that probably calling somebody racist is just under murderer and rapist, calling somebody a racist? Isn’t that about as serious and vile an accusation as you can hurl against somebody. Somebody you don’t even know. You’ve never talked to me. You’ve never met me. You don’t know what’s in my heart, do you?”
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