Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson on defensive after staff texts revealed in Jan. 6 hearings
HUDSON, Wis. -- His campaign for a third term in the United States Senate was already a steep climb, but Ron Johnson now has to answer to voters' concerns about his office's being implicated in the January 6 Capitol Assault investigation.
"He is the most vulnerable Republican senator on the ballot this November in part because Wisconsin voted for Joe Biden," Ed O'Keefe, CBS News Senior White House and Political Correspondent, explained to WCCO. "It is one of the few we're watching on a national level, and Wisconsin has an opportunity to set the agenda for the next two years."
At its fourth hearing, the House select committee investigating the riots revealed text messages between Johnson's chief of staff and an aide to Vice President Mike Pence on the morning of January 6. The messages contain an offer to deliver to Pence an alternate slate of electors that vote for President Donald Trump instead of President-Elect Joe Biden, despite the fact that Biden won the state of Wisconsin -- a result that had been investigated, litigated and then certified by state officials.
"Do not give that to him," Pence's aide responded.
"And that just shows you how well orchestrated it was," O'Keefe said of Trump's campaign to "bully" lawmakers -- and the Vice President - into unlawfully overturning the presidential election. "It shows you there was still this belief that among a handful of Republicans, they can still dramatically upend the results even though the vice president and his team concluded he had one job that day, which was to bang the gavel and allow proceedings to continue and certify reality."
Johnson, chased down by reporters outside the Capitol, said "I was not involved in this at all," while his press secretary posted on Twitter that the Senator "had no involvement in the creation of an alternate slate of electors and had no foreknowledge that it was going to be delivered to our office ... The vice president's office said not to give it to him and we did not. There was no further action taken. End of story."
Wisconsin voters react to hearings, Johnson's office's alleged involvement in election scheme
Nearly 19 million Americans tuned into the first hearing, aired during primetime on June 9. Since then, voters in Hudson, a quaint town along the St. Croix River, told WCCO they've generally caught bits and pieces of the hearings either live or later recapped on the news.
"I've listened a couple times on the radio in the car," Jean Strong said. "If [Trump]'s going to run again, and he's asking people to accommodate him in a way he wants to be accommodated, that's important for us to know if someone did that for him or didn't."
As for what new information she's learned from the hearings, Strong offered strong praise for Vice President Mike Pence.
"Pence pushed back a little more than possibly I realized. It matters to me that there was someone that had a backbone to Donald Trump's suggestions to do it his way."
Strong, who voted for Sen. Johnson before, said it does not reflect well on Johnson that his office was allegedly involved in the fake electors scheme -- but she wouldn't rule out voting for him again come November.
"There are bigger things out there that I would probably take into account," she said. "I would take into account the gas prices and the economy and where we're headed with that, big government, those type of things."
Bill Miller, who owns and antique shop in downtown Hudson, echoed that sentiment.
"There are people living right on the edge and they're dying on the vine," Miller lamented. "To get to work they need the gas to make the money to get their food. And it doesn't appear that we're getting a lot of help there."
Denise Shipley, who was out shopping with friends, was much more emphatic in expressing her displeasure of Johnson.
"It's a big deal you tried to invalidate all of our votes," Shipley said. "He's acting like he didn't know anything about it, that it was maybe some intern. But wasn't it your job to know what they were doing?"
Select committee hearings resume Thursday
The select committee will host its fifth public hearing on Thursday, which according to members will focus on former President Trump's attempts to influence the Justice Department to help him overturn the election.
"Just as we heard today that Donald Trump was deeply involved in the scheme to pressure state officials to overturn the election results, we will hear on Thursday that Donald Trump was also the driving force behind an effort to corrupt the Justice Department," Chair Bennie Thompson (D-MI) said during Tuesday's hearing.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), who along with Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) are the only two Republicans on the nine-member committee, is expected to lead the questioning of a witness list that includes former acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen and former acting deputy attorney general Richard Donoghue, among others.
In private testimony to the committee earlier this year, Donoghue recalled Trump suggesting replacing Rosen with former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark.
"I said, 'Sir, I would resign immediately. There is no way I'm serving one minute under this guy, Jeff Clark,'" Donoghue said, according to a clip of Donoghue the committee played Tuesday.
How to watch Thursday's House January 6 committee public hearing
Date: June 23, 2022
Time: 2 p.m. CST
Location: U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
Watch: Live on CBS News or stream on your mobile or streaming device
Live Updates: Follow live updates on CBSNews.com
