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Did Ron Johnson say "To call what happened on Jan. 6 an ‘armed insurrection,’ I just think it's inaccurate"?

By Jacob Alabab-Moser
YES

Wisconsin U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson said at a Milwaukee Rotary Club event on Oct. 4, "To call what happened on Jan. 6 an ‘armed insurrection,’ I just think it's inaccurate." Johnson cited the fact that no guns were seized by police that day. 

A spokesperson told NBC News that Johnson believes participants in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection received unfair scrutiny compared to those in the 2020 protests after the killing of George Floyd, including use of weapons.

Johnson has made similar comments in the past. But as NPR noted in 2021, some participants were charged with carrying weapons, including "stun guns, pepper spray, baseball bats and flagpoles wielded as clubs." 

And in July, as the Jan. 6 House hearings and prosecutions progressed, the Washington Post reported on multiple accounts of people carrying guns on the Capitol grounds that day, including four who were criminally charged.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
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