Wis. Senate Candidates Were Asked to Compliment Each Other at Final Debate — One Simply Couldn't

STR/NurPhoto via Getty; Sara Stathas for the Washington Post/Getty Ron Johnson (left), Mandela Barnes

Amid the back and forth of partisan politics, there was a rare opportunity for unity in Thursday night's Wisconsin Senate debate, when the two candidates, Ron Johnson and Mandela Barnes, were asked to name something they admire about one another. But the moment fell flat after Johnson, the Republican incumbent in the race, instead accused his opponent of being "against America."

At the tail end of the debate, the moderator offered one final question for the candidates, saying: "When we traveled around the state talking to voters, we heard repeatedly that people are tired of divisive politics and attack ads. So our final question here tonight is: Both of you have been successful in life ... What do you find admirable about your opponent?"

Barnes, the state's Democratic lieutenant governor who is slightly trailing the incumbent in polls, answered first.

"I do think the senator has proven to be a family man and I think that's admirable," Barnes, 35, said. "That's absolutely to be respected. He speaks about his family. He's done a lot to provide for them and I absolutely respect that."

RELATED: Lawmakers Slam Sen. Ron Johnson's Racist Remarks About U.S. Capitol Riot: 'Stunning'

Johnson, however, offered a different assessment, saying Barnes "had loving parents" and "a good upbringing," but adding, "I guess what puzzles me about that is, with that upbringing: Why has he turned against America?"

As the moderators tried to interject, the rest of Johnson's answer — "Why does he find America awful?" — was drowned out by boos from the audience.

GREG NASH/POOL/AFP via Getty Sen. Ron Johnson

Johnson, 67, elicited a mix of boos and laughs earlier in the night, as well, when he asserted that the FBI had set him up after Barnes had claimed the Republican was "sat down by the FBI and warned that he may be a Russian asset."

"The FBI set me up with a corrupt briefing and then leaked that to smear me," Johnson said, as the audience began to jeer.

As Johnson himself described in 2021, the FBI warned the senator that he could be a target for Russian disinformation months before the U.S. presidential election.

"Regarding reports that I received an FBI briefing warning me that I was a target of Russian disinformation, I can confirm I received such a briefing in August of 2020," Johnson said in an earlier statement to The Washington Post.

Elsewhere in the statement, Johnson said there was "no substance to the briefing," adding: "I suspected that the briefing was being given to be used at some future date for the purpose that it is now being used: to offer the biased media an opportunity to falsely accuse me of being a tool of Russia despite warnings."

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Johnson was also on the receiving end of boos last year as he made an appearance at a Juneteenth celebration in Milwaukee — one year after he had blocked legislation to make the day a federal holiday.

"As more people recognized him, he was drowned out by a chorus of boos," the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported at the time.

"We don't want you here!" crowds chanted at Johnson, while others added, "Nobody wants you here!"

RELATED: GOP Sen. Ron Johnson 'Drowned Out' by Boos at Juneteenth Event: 'Nobody Wants You Here'

Johnson has also previously been criticized for saying he didn't feel threatened during the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, which were carried out by a group of overwhelmingly white Trump supporters, but that he would have if the rioters had been supporters of Black Lives Matter or Antifa.

"Even though those thousands of people that were marching to the Capitol were trying to pressure people like me to vote the way they wanted me to vote," Johnson said on the conservative talk radio Joe Pags Show in 2021, "I knew those were people that love this country, that truly respect law enforcement, would never do anything to break the law, and so I wasn't concerned."

Johnson continued: "Now, had the tables been turned — Joe, this could get me in trouble — had the tables been turned, and President [Donald] Trump won the election and those were tens of thousands of Black Lives Matter and Antifa protesters, I might have been a little concerned."

Johnson, who was elected to the Senate in 2010, issued a pledge in 2016 that he would retire after two terms. In January 2022, he announced he would run for a third term.