Speaker 1: And we are back with another edition of the Federalist
Radio Hour. I'm Matt Kittle, Senior Elections correspondent at the
Federalist and your experienced Shirpa on today's quest for Knowledge.
Speaker 2: As always, you.
Speaker 1: Can email the show at radio at the Federalist dot com,
follow us on x at FDR LST, make sure to
subscribe wherever you download your podcast, and of course to
the premium version of our website as well. Our guest
today is Senator Ron Johnson, Wisconsin Senior Senator in the
main We're talking today about what the Wall Street Journal
has described as the most important election in twenty twenty five,
and if you count the money, for sure, a definitely
is with some major impacts not only in the state
of Wisconsin, but nationally in the House of Representatives. Senator
thanks so much for joining us in this edition of
the Federalist Radio Hour.
Speaker 2: Well, Matt, glad to be on HOPE.
Speaker 1: You're doing well, Yes, you, sir as well. I know
you've been fighting the good fight as you always do
in the swamp and you have been a leading warrior
in draining the swamp. I know there are challenges, obviously,
but you fight on the left sir is losing what's
left of its collective mind over Elon Musk spending heavily
on this Wisconsin Supreme Court race, which will determine whether
that court remains in the control of the liberals or
if it goes back to the control of the conservatives.
As I said before, it's a big deal because ultimately
you could have a court that could decide the redistricting
lines congressional lines for the House of Representative maps in
the state of Wisconsin. We've heard about all of the
big promises that have been made if Susan Crawford, the
Liberal candidate for the Supreme Court, is elected, and what
she might be able to do along with a liberal
court if the liberals remain control. You know, the left
doesn't like to talk about the millions upon millions coming
in from socialist sugar daddies like George Soros and JB. Pritzker.
During a recent online forum with a Musk on X
you said that if Brad Shimmel, the conservative candidate, wins,
we have to thank Elon in the April first election.
Is Musk's urgent message getting across to conservatives, particularly the
many who tend to sit out Springs, Sure, hope.
Speaker 3: So, and you know, I think people need to understand
this is a long term project on the part of
the radical left, starting with Saul Lensky's Rules for radical
but they actually go dates back to the Bolsheviks. But
you come forward to to modern times, I mean Eric Holder,
George Soros, I mean they have been concentrating on local
and state elections, these district attorneys that stopped prosecuting crimes
and destroying cities, taking over court systems of state of
Supreme Court, that type of thing. So, you know, the
Jannit protos, which Dan Kelly race is the one that
they really went all in on, you know, send spinning
levels up to just grow test levels an other I
think doubling probably doubling that.
Speaker 2: For this race as well.
Speaker 3: And you know, we're we're not for people like Elon
Musk and others that recognize that we just can't we
can't unilaterally disarm here. We wouldn't have a chance, quite honestly,
and again all the left really has our lies deception.
They're employing them big time in this race. What we
need is ground game, ground game, ground game, and individuals.
Everybody that voted for President Trump they need to recognize
how important it is to this particular race as well.
There's no reason, for example, dan Kelly only got eight
thousand votes two years ago, Donald Trump got one point seven.
There's no reason to have that nine hundred thousand vote deficit.
So we got to drive turnout, and that's what the
whole game is all about.
Speaker 1: And you have to think that if you pick up
some of those that differential between the Donald Trump vote
and the Dan Kelly vote. Dan Kelly, of course was
the Conservative candidate for Supreme Court Wisconsin Supreme Court in
twenty twenty three. If you pick up some of those votes,
you've got a good chance to win this in what
appears to be a pretty close race, at least from
what I'm hearing.
Speaker 3: Well, if you take a look at non presidential years,
you know both Scott Walker and I got into somewhere
between one point two. Scott got one point three in
his recall election that was you know, def definitely jazz
and turnout there as well.
Speaker 2: Again, there's no.
Speaker 3: Reason we shouldn't beginning one point two one point three,
which is about the level of Jannet Prose which got
against dan Kelly. So you know, we've got to actually
do better than that, and we certainly should be able
to appreciate President Trump now coming out to strong endorsement.
Obviously Elon Musk is endorsement plus his involvement. But again,
Wisconsin Conservatives need to understand how important this thing is
and they got to go get out there, you know,
voting early and voting and winning this race.
Speaker 1: What do you think of the left complaining about big
money election from their Ola Garks right, the Bernie Sanders
claiming that Elon Musk is an Ola Gark. They certainly
don't like to pay attention to the real Ola Garks
work on their sides. The George Soros is the you know,
the Reid Hoffman's, the JB. Pritzkers. I mean they have
poured millions of dollars into this race.
Speaker 3: No, I mean the left is the party of the elite,
now a Republican party. We represent the working men and
women of this country and Democrats. If there's of many
negative attributes Democrats, one of them is they're complete hypocrites.
So they will falsely accuse their political opponents of doing
exactly what they do in spades. And so no, they
are funded by these radical left elitists, these billionaires, and
they've got their media companies in the back pocket as well,
so they get air covered by the legacy media, by
the corporate media. You know.
Speaker 1: They were yeah, no doubt about it, and they were painting,
you know, the left in the accomplished media. I see
the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which is doing it's usual duty
to cover for the leftist candidate, whoever that leftist candidate
might be. They're painting your involvement, by the way, in
the X Forum with Elon Musk and Brad Schimmel and others.
As you know, Elon Musk trying to control and manipulate
politics in Wisconsin.
Speaker 2: Again.
Speaker 1: Without Elon Musk, as you noted, there would be a
significant dollar difference between the amount of money the outside
interest and it's running at about eighty percent right now
for Susan Crawford, the liberal candidate. You know, there is
a huge spending difference without Elon Musk entering this race,
and Democrats would have an extreme advantage.
Speaker 3: Once again, I remember in the movie Patent where Georgie
Scott is watching Romel do his maneuvers and saying, Robert Rommel,
you magnificent. You know what I read your book. The
fact is that they're employing the rules for radicals here.
You know, pick a target, isolate the target, and destroy it.
So that's exactly what they're what they're doing to Elon Musk.
He's their target. They again, Trump was they were unable
to destroy him because what he represents is popular with
the American public. I mean, that's what the Democrats aren't
understanding is their policies were grotesquely unpopular. Trump promised a
closed border to secure the border. He promised to get
rid of wokeism and DEI. He promised to end these
endless wars as opposed to get embroiled in them. The
left just doesn't want to contemplate or admit the fact
that what they're trying to impose and what they have
imposted on America is grotesquely unpopular. And they're so used
again the legacy media, the corporate media, providing the air
cover to absolve them of all their sins. But Donald
Trump proved him wrong. So again they couldn't destroy Donald Trump.
So now they've got a new target and they're gonna
do everything they can destroy him, including vandalizing his produce.
Speaker 2: It's really grotesque I mean, and what you.
Speaker 3: Can't celebrate the fact that it was SpaceX that rescued
the astronauts from the space State. I mean again, just
like the Democrats in.
Speaker 2: The State of the Union.
Speaker 3: They wouldn't even stand up an applaud of young cancer
victim who got an honorary Secret Service membership. I mean,
I don't know. It's man, It's amazing to me that
so many Americans, so many Wisconsins.
Speaker 2: Vote for these radical leftists. It's just again shows the
power of the media.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the word is grotesque for all that
you had just mentioned. So I guess that's the question
in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. Are do you think
that conservatives who rejected that growth tesk agenda from the
left in so many different ways. I mean, you mentioned it,
and what supported Donald Trump's reforms changes, first and foremost
securing the border, making sure that we have a border,
and then going after what you have been going after
for years in Wisconsinight's have supported you, and that is
a massive out of control federal government that is spending
us into bankruptcy. Will those conservatives understand that this race
in Wisconsin is precisely tied to that agenda and the
left trying to stop that agenda.
Speaker 3: I sure hope so, but let's face it, Matt, last
time I won by the narrows to margin. That's why
I say, what's what's kind of depressing is you know, yeah,
President Trump won convincingly, but Wisconsin I won by thirty
thousand votes.
Speaker 2: So again it's razor thin.
Speaker 3: Again, it's because of the influence of the media, because
lies are effective.
Speaker 2: Okay, I mean, they will maybe.
Speaker 3: Not encourage people to vote for Susan Crawford, but it
may depressed turnout if people believe the lies that all
those tens of millions of dollars are being spent to tell.
So again, politics is a nasty business. You just have
to hope and believe that the truth in the end
has its own power and that people supported Donald Trump
will realized, well, this is if you want Donald Trump
to succeed, he better not lose the majority in the House.
And this race could actually determine whether he retains the
majority in the media election or loses it.
Speaker 1: Well, the Democrats and their big liberal funders are making
no secret about what they want to do. It. Wrote
a piece today as we Record, published at the Federalist
about Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Susan Crawford, claiming you remember,
as she did in this month's debate, that she had
no idea that a call she was on with wealthy
leftist donors was about how Democrats could use the court
to grab a couple of Wisconsin congressional seats and ultimately
change the power structure in the House, giving the House
back to the Democrats in twenty twenty six. She insists
that she had no idea that this big donor call
was all about what Hakeem Jeffries spelled out this week
at a DNC update. They clearly need Susan Crawford to
win if they have any hope of stopping Republicans in
Donald Trump. What do you think about Hakeem Jeffries now
becoming the latest Democrat to say the quiet part out loud.
Speaker 3: Well, I think what is interesting is that's not being
covered by the legacy media machin No. Can you imagine
if a Republican were on a call and that same
thing transpired.
Speaker 2: I mean, that would be major news.
Speaker 3: We just like the signal yes right is right now?
I mean, listen, a mistake, a problem in the end
there's so many more things to worry about, but mainstream
press has got to highlight that is probably the most
significant news during the last month. Okay, so no, it's
not a fair fight. It's not a level playing field.
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Speaker 1: Senator Ron Johnson joining us on this edition of the
Federalist Radio Hour, I want to turn our attention to
a couple of other important things. You have been working
for some time now in trying to get answers from
the federal government, particularly under the Biden administration. Regarding what
is known I guess in intelligence circles as the Arctic
Frost investigation, the FBI seizing or grabbing up government cell
phones of President Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence,
among other government officials. FBI agents use taxpayer dollars to
crisscross the country and conduct dozens of interviews in support
of the political probe. I know that you, as a
chairman of the Senate Permanent sub Committee on Investigations, you've
asked for You've asked the Attorney General Pam Bondi Federal
Bureau of Investigation Director Cash Battel to make public these
protected whistle blower disclosures in this issue. Where do things
stand on that front? Have you gotten any movement on
that front?
Speaker 2: Well, first of all, I think Pam Bondi and.
Speaker 3: Cash Btel are absolutely dedicated to being transparent and provide
that information to public.
Speaker 2: It doesn't go as fast as I'd like it to.
Speaker 3: It will show what we already know that there's grow
tesque levels of partisanship within the Department Justice.
Speaker 2: And the FBI.
Speaker 3: That they were out, they targeted Donald Trump, they were
out to get him. They're going to, you know, make
up charges if nothing else are trying. You know, it's
it's very similar to an entrapment type of situation. And
so you know, if we get these documents, I think
it's going to just confirm what we pretty well already
know or and already suspect. And my concern about all
the investigations I'm doing is, I mean, there's there's so
much news occurring now. There's so many other abuses that
are new that people are just finding about that they're
going to uh focus on that. You know, once we
wrap all this stuff up and get as much information
as possible. And by the way, we'll never get all
the information, you know, President Trump sort of the release
of the JFK files. I mean, do you think all
those files will ever be released? I mean, you know
how many have already been destroyed? You know, my guess,
the Shredders, the bleach Bit programs, all those things were
running in high gear at the tail end of the
buy administration. So I mean that's it's it's always been
a problem for historians, and that's really what we're looking
at right now, is we're trying to at least provide
a more complete picture of the of the abuse, the
partisanship within these federal agencies literally for deades and pretty
much all targeting conservatives and Republicans at the for the
benefit of Democrats and the left.
Speaker 1: I think that's the reason that we shouldn't expect all
of these documents to be released in the main because
they've been destroyed. That's I think a big problem. So
what you are doing, and you've talked about this before,
you're trying to piece together puzzles with not all of
the jigsaw pieces, and it's difficult, but you have had success,
and I think you're going to have more success now
in the majority in getting this information out there. I
think what Americans want to know is Cash Battel is
committed to cleaning up the FBI, Pam Bondi is committed
to cleaning up the weaponized Department of Justice. But could
something like this happen again? Given the Deep states existential
crisis going on the Trump administration. The president is going
after the swamp in the deep state. We know what
happens to a rat when it is cornered. Are you
concerned that this could continue to happen even though you
have new leadership?
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 3: I mean one of the reasons that I announced very
quickly after President trumpointing elections, is you should really appoint
a Secretary of Information extraction. It's gonna be hard to me.
I'm wordered with Bobby Candy right now. He wants a
radical transparency. It's the snails pace again. The bureaucracy, the
deep state can throw up so many roadblocks. They got
this down.
Speaker 2: To a t.
Speaker 3: What they haven't destroyed, they still prevent from release. So
now that this is going to be a long, hard
slog trying to get this information I.
Speaker 1: Made all the more difficult, of course, by activist judges.
Wanted to get your thoughts on the latest from that front.
There are multiple federal judges, many of them appointed by
Barack Obama or Joe Biden, who are now exceeding their power.
A lot of constitutional experts will tell you, I think
the most glaring may be this battle that is going
on about the Trump administration's ability to deport violent criminals,
gang members, and terrorists. And we have a federal judge
that appears to have overstepped his powers in trying to
shut that down and thwart the executive branch. What do
you think about all that is happening on the judicial side.
Speaker 3: Well, I think the courts generally under the direction of
radical left jurists that are really not judges. They alter
the law, they're super legislators, they legislate from the bench.
I think they've exceeded their constitutional authority and they need
to be reigned back in. And it really is going
to be up to the Supreme Court, I think, is
the only institution that can really do this to its
district courts. But no, you know, these nationwide injunctions being
proclaimed and issued by a district court judges is.
Speaker 2: Completely out of control.
Speaker 3: I think Justice Thomas has talked about this and really
encourage Justice Roberts and his colleagues to take up some
of these cases so they can reign it in. There's
a good article in the Wallshair Journal that ran on
Wednesday that really kind of lays out exactly what the
Supreme Court can and really should do to this. But again,
our founders were geniuses. They set up these three branches
of government that they're supposed to be checking balance on
each other, assuming that each branch would jealously guard their
own constitution authorities and not be trampled on by another branch.
And that's really what President Trump is doing he's being
criticized by Justice Roberts. Well, if you know, if you
don't want President Trump to criticize the ujiciary, you ought
to fix it because it's a real problem. You know,
Justice Thomas realizes that. Justice Roberts better realize it too,
and rain this judicial abuse reined it in.
Speaker 1: Well, the leftists weren't really concerned when Joe Biden, or
at least his auto pen, we're putting together all kinds
of executive orders that clearly exceeded the constitutional boundaries, and
he got to support Joe Biden did from some of
these same leftist judges. Of course, that ought to be
concerning to Chief Justice Roberts. Why do you think he
has not acted thus far to clean up these problems
in what a lot of folks are calling, understandably a
rogue judiciary.
Speaker 3: I can't really answer in terms of what his thinking
is or what his motives.
Speaker 2: Aren't sure, but again, this is.
Speaker 3: The problem we have with our courts, and we need
to recognize it and we need to fix it.
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk to you about something that I
think is extremely important you've been working on for some time,
and that is the battle against fentanyl. It ties into
exactly what we're talking about, cleaning up the border, making
sure that we have a border in the fentanyl problem,
There's no doubt about it. The reason why it is
such a crisis in this country is because of the
open border policies of the previous administration. You have been
working with local folks on this in Wisconsin for a
long time. I think you've been able to accomplish a
great deal. I think about my friend Laurie Badoura. You've
been working with her for a long time. Her story
is sadly like so many stories out there, moms dads
who have lost their children because of the scourge of fentanyl.
Give us an update on where legislation stands, the work
that you've been doing on this front to get a
handle on this crisis.
Speaker 3: Well, the Senate passed a bill that was really patterned
off of the SOFA Act, which recognize is these analogs
of fetanol so that they are all classified as you know,
the dangerous drug and you know they can be treated
such by DEA because what was happening is the Chinese
is they're producing these drugs would just change the molecule
a little bit and all of a sudden, it's not
on the schedule and it can't be enforced against what
like you do, the criminal class types of drugs. So
that that's good news that that will pass. But you
know the problem is we have a demand for these drugs,
and you have a country like China that is using
this to poison America. You know, when I was chairing
Homeland Security and touring Central America with the then the
head of Southern Command, General Kelly, and you know, talking
to the people DA and people interdicting drugs. You know,
at most we interdict about ten percent of whatever drug
you know, marijuana or meth amphetamine or cocaine or fetanyl
in manufacturing.
Speaker 2: We call that.
Speaker 3: Scrap and it's just cost of doing business. So I
don't think we'll ever solve this problem by interdicting. You know,
even if you close the border. When I was chairming,
we held hearing eight hundred pounds of precursor chemicals those
come from China. Eight hundred dollars of precursor chemicals can
be converted to eight hundred thousand dollars of street value drugs.
So when there's that much profit motive. Now again, Biden's
open border made it easy for the drug traffickers, for
China to send the precursed chemicals into Mexico, for them
to produce the tablets, the counterfeit pills that are so dangerous.
When people think they're taking a prescription drug and they're
you know, they're dead within minutes, if not hours. Again,
it's a huge problem. But again I wish there was
an easy solution to this. But the primary solution is
how do you reduce demand. I mean, we've got to
do a far better job educating our children, which is
one of the reasons every group of young people I
meet with and now I do I tell and be
thankful for what your parents and your teachers and your
school administrators are doing.
Speaker 2: That you've lived in this country, but please don't do drugs.
Speaker 3: Life is precious, it's not worth throwing away.
Speaker 2: So we just really do need.
Speaker 3: I know Nancy Reagan was criticized and ridiculed for just
say no, that we need to tell our kids, just
say no.
Speaker 2: We have to teach them to danger this stuff.
Speaker 1: And that's the thing too. I mean, it's always been
danger It's Nancy Reagan and the Americans knew that in
the nineteen eighties. It's gotten so much more dangerous with
these opioids introduced, particularly fentanyl, And you think about how
many I just you know, as a parent, as any parent,
you know, as a parent of three children, I think
about the dangers. I hear about the dangers in our
American high schools on a regular basis. And now you're
seeing this stuff introduced in in vaping and all of
those sorts of things. There are choices that people make,
but you're right. Until you can get a handle on
the market and the incentive in that market, we're going
to continue to battle this. But let me ask you
how much so far we've seen rapid action from the
Trump administration on the border. How much do you believe
that is helping the problem, at least with distribution.
Speaker 3: Well, it'll help, but it's not going to stop it.
It's it's not in the end of solution. So I
don't think anybody you know, so one hundred cent secure
the border. It's going to make it more difficult. We'll
probably drive the price up, but again, which will reduce demand.
I mean, it is a free market from that standpoint,
but it's still going to continue. And again, the difference
you know, in my day, drugs would just destroy your life.
I mean there were some, there were hero and overdoses
when I was growing up, but nothing like fetanol.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: The stories I hear of, you know, you know the
one that is always haunts me as a father telling
me about his daughter who they they recovered her, you know,
they got her back back from the home and they
getting her clean, and you know, he wakes up one
morning and she's sitting in front of the TV with
a bowl of popcorn dead.
Speaker 2: Oh just you know, she's see there.
Speaker 3: Trying to watch TV, and she took you know, counterfeit
pill Fenohl. You just stop breathing. Yeah, you know, it's
just so again, we need to educate our children. This
is what happens. You want to stay awake for a
test when you go away to college, and that pill,
do not trust it. Maybe the last breath you take.
Speaker 2: So the drug drugs today are deadly. Drugs have always
destroyed people's lives. Now they will end your life.
Speaker 1: Lord, how horrifying that must be to wake up in
the morning and see your child there all so senselessly.
It's just it's so very tragic. But the work is
is so very important. You've been very generous at the time.
I appreciate it, knowing you've got to get back you
have votes to day. The final question for you tying
it all back to this critical Wisconsin Supreme Court race.
Where do you see all of this heading on April first?
Speaker 2: Well, I'm hoping for.
Speaker 3: Victory so we can have a conservative majority on Wisconsin
Supreme Court and we can say Wisconsin.
Speaker 2: Yes, indeed.
Speaker 1: But hope is one thing. Action is another. Do you
think that Conservatives republic the Republican Party has done enough
to get people out to the polls.
Speaker 2: Done a lot of stuff.
Speaker 3: I'll be on Brad Schimmel's bus tour here this weekend,
so trying to gin up support as well. And I
know Brad has worked tirelessly. He's been working tirelessly for
you know, well over a year. You see, you can't.
You can't have a more harder working candidate than what
Brad has proven himself to be. So the candidate has
done his job. There, people you know support him done
their job. That's up to conservatives to recognize how important
this race is. And again, one point seven million came
out and voted for Donald Trump. There's no reason we
can't get a whole lot better turnout than we got
for Dan Kelly. There's no reason we shouldn't win this race.
Speaker 1: Indeed, I can tell you this as a guy who's
covered Wisconsin politics for feels like a couple of centuries now.
Brad Shimmel is no tuba player, and I think Wisconsin
will get Those who have seen the Supreme Court elections
in Wisconsin covered them over the last several years, we'll
get the reference. Appreciate your time, sir as always, keep
up the good fight, have great days, stay well you too.
Thanks to my guest today, Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin,
you've been listening to another edition of the Federalist Radio Hour.
I'm Matt Kittle, Senior Elections correspondent at the Federalist. We'll
be back soon with more. Until then, stay lovers of freedom.
I'm anxious for the frame.
Speaker 3: I heard the fame voice the Reason and then it
faded away. Mm hmm