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Analysis: Ron Johnson used the Capitol attack hearing to push a ridiculous conspiracy theory

February 23, 2021. Summarized by summa-bot.

Compression ratio: 26.8%. 1 min read.

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 06: Pro-Trump supporters storm the U.S. Capitol following a rally with President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC. Trump supporters gathered in the nation's capital today to protest the ratification of President-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College victory over President Trump in the 2020 election. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson has carved out quite a niche for himself in recent weeks: He's the guy willing to push wild conspiracy theories about what happened before, during and after the January 6 riot at the US Capitol.

(CNN)Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson has carved out quite a niche for himself in recent weeks: He's the guy willing to push wild conspiracy theories about what happened before, during and after the January 6 riot at the US Capitol.

It shouldn't surprise you one bit, then, that Johnson used his time in the first public Senate hearing on the Capitol attack to spread a single eyewitness account suggesting that there were professional provocateurs seeded in the crowd on January 6 that led the largely peaceful gathering to turn violent.

In it, Waller claimed that "a small number of cadre appeared to use the cover of a huge rally to stage its attack," suggesting that these "agents-provocateurs" were a) not Trump supporters and b) were primarily responsible for the violent storming of the Capitol.

In the same piece, Waller argues that the Capitol Police badly overreacted to the crowd, which turned things violent.

But for Johnson to elevate an admittedly subjective take on January 6 to the level of reading it aloud in a Senate hearing on an attack that left five people dead and scores more wounded?

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