Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, used some of his time to shred ranking member Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) for dismissing the Hunter Biden scandal as Russian misinformation and accusing Republicans of participating in it.
"I just have to talk about Russian disinformation because the people peddling it are not on my side of the aisle. Senior Democratic leaders, including Ranking Member Peters, were involved in a process of creating a false intelligence product that was supposed to be classified. They leaked to the media that accused [Senator] Grassley, the president pro temp of the Senate, and myself, of accepting and disseminating Russian disinformation...I never heard of the person until they brought it up. Senator Peters introduced that false information, Russian disinformation, into our investigation record," Johnson said.
"Fifty people associated with the intelligence community, after our Hunter Biden investigation and the revelations of Hunter Biden computer, said, 'Oh this is Russian disinformation.' Now we found out it was real by the Justice Department. So it is just galling and I have to point out that the purveyors of Russian disinformation, Hillary Clinton's campaign, the DNC, the Steele Dossier, Ranking Member Peters accusing Senator Grassley and I of disseminating Russian disinformation. That’s where the disinformation is coming, that's where the false information, the lies, the false allegations. I can’t sit by and listen to this and say this is not disinformation, this hearing today," he continued.
Johnson said the purpose of the hearing is to figure out what went wrong with the voting irregularities during the 2020 presidential election and the solutions to fix them in order to restore faith in the voting process.
Peters and Johnson then got into a heated back and forth, with Johnson saying Peters had "lied repeatedly" about Republicans spreading Russian disinformation.
