GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – One of Wisconsin’s U.S. Senator’s is hoping the government can move on after the release of the Mueller Report.
The entire process has been frustrating for US Senator Ron Johnson, who says the dig into Presidents Trump’s campaign and possible Russian collusion has been flawed since its inception.
“‘I’m not real nuts about special counsels,” explains Senator Johnson. “It keeps the information away from the American public, which I think has been very harmful in this case over the last two years.”
Johnson joined the John Muir Show on Thursday for a discussion after Attorney General William Barr’s stated that there was insufficient evidence to charge President Trump with obstruction of justice.
For him, Barr’s sentiment is one that aligns with his personal beliefs regarding the multiyear investigation.
“This was strictly a Russian intelligence operation, it didn’t surprise me,” says Johnson. “I’m chair of the European subcommittee as well, I’ve seen them attempt a coup in Montenegro, I’ve seen their disinformation propaganda.”
Senator Johnson hopes this will finally put the issue to bed and restore some of Washington’s credibility in the public eye.
“I think that’s the biggest takeaway, that we need to make sure that we take everything we see on social media with a grain of salt, because you don’t really know where it’s coming from,” explains Johnson.
But, he remains realistic about the current political climate at the nation’s capital and concedes that partisan politics will more than likely keep the discussion surrounding this topic ongoing for some time being.
Nonetheless, he came away fully satisfied following William Barr’s news conference.
“What I saw was, first of all, a person of high integrity,” Johnson says when speaking about Barr. “A very sober individual, fact-based.”
Senator Johnson says that future jabs at the President regarding possible collusion will be based on personal distaste, rather than substantial evidence.
“The hatred for Donald Trump is really just unhinged,” he says.
Johnson, one of Wisconsin’s two U.S. Senators, joined the program following a recent visit to the United States-Mexico border.
He says the trip to El Paso, Texas did nothing but further solidify his mindset that action is needed at the border to improve our nation’s security.
“Right now they are handling about seven hundred people a day,” says Johnson. “Instead of twenty-eight agents on the border, now they have two or three and the rest are processing families and kids.”
One of the more concerning things to him is the ease in which so many illegal citizens are crossing over the border and getting into the country.
“What people need to understand, this is a highly organized effort,” he says. “This is a well oiled machine.”
He goes into detail regarding the process in which illegal citizens link up with family members in the United States and make the move.
“In a few days you’ll be on a bus or on a plane to a relative somewhere in America, probably a city near you,” says Johnson.
Once those illegal citizens enter the country it can be difficult to keep track of general data concerning their whereabouts.
Senator Johnson says it’s concerning to not have this information.
“Nobody has really kept track,” he explains. “They tell us an address, sometimes, about twenty-percent, they put an ankle bracelet on which a vast majority cut off right away.”
So what’s the solution?
He says while the country may still be far away from having a perfect plan, there are attainable goals to set, which would vastly improve the current climate.
One of those first steps would be establishing a more accurate and rapid determination of asylum claims at the border.
“Those that clearly don’t have a valid asylum claim, we have to send back,” explains Johnson.
The entire interview of U.S. Senator Ron Johnson on the John Muir Show can be heard in the podcast section or by clicking here.
