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Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) continues to defend comments he made last week when he said he did not feel threatened by pro-Trump rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol but would have been concerned if the rioters were Black Lives Matter or antifa protesters. He said Monday he did not believe his comments were racist.

During an interview Monday on WISN’s Dan O’Donnell Show, Johnson said there was “no racism involved.”

Johnson said on Thursday on a conservative news radio show, “The Joe Pags Show,” that he “never felt threatened” by the rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 hoping to overturn the results of the election.

“I knew those are people that love this country, that truly respect law enforcement, would never do anything to break the law, so I wasn’t concerned,” Johnson said. But he added that it would have been different if it had been Black Lives Matter or antifa protesters who stormed the Capitol.

“Now, had the tables been turned — now, Joe, this will get me in trouble — had the tables been turned and President 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 said.

On Monday, Johnson said about the comments: “It has nothing to do with race. It has everything to do with riots,” and noted many participants in Black Lives Matters protests had been White.

“Remember those leftist activists, those protesters, that some of them turned into riots, a lot of them are White,” Johnson said, adding: “So there’s no racism involved in this at all.”

He said he “did not anticipate that anybody could interpret what I said as racist. It’s not. This is about rioters.”

Numerous Democrats condemned the remarks. Democratic group American Bridge 21st Century referred to Johnson’s statements last week as “blatant racism.”

Amy B Wang contributed to this report.

Source: WP