Johnson spreading absurd lies on behalf of violent insurrectionists and Republican legislators proposing a flurry of voter suppression bills.

MADISON -- Ron Johnson used his time during today’s Senate hearing on the January 6th Capitol riots to promote a conspiracy theory that the insurrectionists were “fake Trump protestors.” Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler issued this statement in response to Johnson’s continued dangerous lies:

“With Ron Johnson spreading absurd lies on behalf of violent insurrectionists and Republican legislators proposing a flurry of voter suppression bills, Wisconsin Republicans are going all in on their war on democracy. It’s clearer than ever that Governor Evers is the last line of defense for Wisconsinites’ right to free and fair elections. Meanwhile, Ron Johnson’s determination to undo democracy means that those who believe in democracy must remove him from power. If Ron Johnson doesn’t do the right thing and resign, his political career will end on November 8, 2022.”

The State Senate met to take first steps to upgrade the unemployment system shortcomings after nearly a year of issues.

MADISON - Today, the Wisconsin State Senate met in a special session to take up legislation to address the backlog of claims with the Department of Workforce Development and the unemployment insurance system.

Senator Melissa Agard (D-Madison) released the following statement following the session:

“Too many people are hurting because they are out of work through no fault of their own due to COVID-19. They’ve been hurting for almost a year. It is disappointing that my Republican colleagues have done almost nothing to fix the issues related to our unemployment insurance technology infrastructure. Instead, they continued their pattern of the last 10 years - using unemployment as a partisan wedge to demonize those who need a helping hand.

“I am glad that today, we are finally voting on bipartisan action to address the fundamental shortcomings of our outdated UI system. These improvements will benefit Wisconsinites across the state who have struggled to get the help they need. The sad fact is, this should have been handled months ago - and Republicans refused to act.

“Every legislator in this building has received contacts regarding the issues with our unemployment system. This should have been a top priority the instant that these issues started to arise. But rather than address it, Republicans chose to ignore their constituents asking for help and blame the governor for something they ignored for nearly a decade. Governor Evers was not the governor when the Republican-controlled legislature passed the one-week waiting period or any bills that further restricted who could and could not access unemployment benefits and helped put us in this situation.

“It’s great that we have finally met to begin to address the issues that were created years ago with bad policy decisions. I hope that we can continue to meet and address the barriers that were unnecessarily created to prohibit our friends and neighbors from accessing the benefits they need to survive during this pandemic. I’m grateful it happened, but disappointed and frustrated it took this long. Wisconsin deserves so much better than this.”