Senator Ron Johnson Spars With Chuck Todd During Interview: ‘A Complete Smear Job Against Me’

During a heated interview, Sen. Ron Johnson (R.I.) fought Chuck Todd (NBC News).

Appearing on the network’s “Meet The Press” on Sunday, Johnson sparred with Todd over a variety of issues, including Hunter Biden’s laptop and President Joe Biden’s classified document scandal.

“Senator, do you have a crime that you think Hunter Biden committed because I’ve yet to see anybody explain?” Todd stated. “It is not a crime to make money off of your last name.”

“I mean, Chuck, is it a crime to be soliciting and purchasing prostitution in potentially European sex trafficking operations? Is that a crime?” Johnson retorted. “Because Chuck Grassley and I laid out about $30,000 paid by Hunter Biden to those types of individuals over December of 2018, 2019, about $30,000. That’s about the same time that President Biden offered to pay about $100,000 of Hunter Biden’s bills. I mean, again, that’s just some information.”

Todd then tried to shift the focus to Democrats wanting to investigate former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, over his foreign business dealings.

“You know, part of the problem, and this is pretty obvious to anybody watching this, is you don’t invite me on to interview me, you invite me on to argue with me,” Johnson responded after a brief back and forth exchange.

“I’m just trying to lay out the facts that certainly Senator Grassley and I uncovered. They were suppressed. They were censored. They interfered in the 2020 election. Conservatives understand that. Unfortunately, liberals in the media don’t. And that’s part of the things that — part of the reasons our politics are inflamed is we do not have an unbiased media. We don’t. It’s unfortunate. I’m all for free press.”

After several moments of back and forth exchanges, Todd responded. “Look, you can go back on your partisan cable cocoon and talk about media bias all you want. I understand it’s part of your identity.”

CHUCK TODD He’s the top Republican on the Homeland Security Committee’s Subcommittee on Investigations. Welcome back Senator Johnson to Meet the Press.

SEN. RON JOHNSON: Well, Chuck, it’s been a while.

CHUCK TODD (Yes, it has). Let me start with — do you approve of Merrick Garland’s decision to appoint a special counsel to look into the Joe Biden classified documents?

SEN. RON JOHNSON (Reply to: SEN. RON JOHNSON) I’m not a real fan of special counsels. I did join 32 of my colleagues in calling for one for Hunter Biden because we had a whistleblower that said that Attorney Weiss doesn’t have the resources to do the type of investigation required. So, but in general, I’m not a fan of special counsels. I think the way we handle these investigations of wrongdoing — I’ll call it that — in the political realm is we just do it completely backwards. I believe Congress should have full access to all information and be able to oversee it. I have never held public hearings. We did the investigation and issued a report. If we find evidence of wrongdoing, we should refer it to the Justice Department. The investigation should begin. The problem is that the investigation starts, but Congress never has access to the information. This means that the American public doesn’t get the full truth. Again, these investigations are done in the political realm, with wrongdoing totally backwards.

CHUCK TODD: So, do you think though that — I mean, Congress has an oversight role. So shouldn’t Congress do their oversight role after an investigation is over? If doing it during the investigation, doesn’t that end up, either on purpose or inadvertently, interfere in the investigation?

SEN. RON JOHNSON (D-NY): Congress has never had access to the information. And by the time we do get access to the information, if we do, it’s all old news and the political figures aren’t held accountable. And from my standpoint, you know, I’d much rather have political figures held accountable with the truth being exposed of what they did, what their wrongdoing, as opposed to the criminal penalties. Oftentimes it’s very difficult to get any kind of criminal charges or convictions, particularly if you’re a Democrat in Washington D.C. From my perspective, it is more important for the public to know exactly what is going on inside the government and within the administration. This is something we don’t always find out. So, part of the problem with our politics today is that the American public continues to be in the dark. All sides are spreading misinformation. From a conservative perspective, one of our biggest frustrations is the censorship. This is the primary reason why information is being suppressed.