Johnson Ad Omits Barnes’ Condemnation of Attack on Police

In the Wisconsin Senate race, an ad from Republican Sen. Ron Johnson selectively pulls comments made by his opponent, Democrat Mandela Barnes, from an interview days after a deadly attack on police in Dallas. The ad claims Barnes “rationalized violence” against police, but it ignores that Barnes said the killings were “not justified in any way” and that he “denounced” the attack.

The ad starts with TV news coverage of the July 7, 2016, sniper attack on Dallas police officers in which five officers were killed. A lone gunman, who was later killed in an explosion after a standoff with police, had opened fire during what had been a peaceful protest and march. The protest was in response to deadly police shootings that week of two Black men, in Louisiana and Minnesota.

A narrator in the ad then says of the Dallas attack: “Just days after this horrific crime, Mandela Barnes appeared on Vladimir Putin’s propaganda news outlet and rationalized violence against American police officers.”

That’s followed by a clip of Barnes saying: “Police officers are over-exercising their badges,” and, “This probably was a retaliatory attack.”