Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson said Tuesday he doesn’t agree with President Donald Trump’s call for Republicans to nationalize elections, but he voiced support for new limits on voting, including requiring proof of citizenship and scaling back absentee ballots.
Johnson’s comments during a Tuesday telephone town hall with constituents, came a day after Trump called for the Republican Party to “take over” and “nationalize” election administration in 15 states, which the president didn’t name.
When asked if he agrees, Johnson said “I do not want to see us nationalizing elections.”
“I do believe it’s fitting and proper to set some basic standards for federal elections like, only citizens can vote in federal elections,” said Johnson.
The third-term Republican is a staunch Trump supporter and championed Republicans’ SAVE Act legislation currently before the U.S. House of Representatives. It would require proof of citizenship when registering to vote in future elections via documents like a U.S. passport, birth certificate or certificates of citizenship issued by the Department of Homeland Security.
Voting rights groups, including the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, oppose the SAVE Act, calling it “a dangerous step toward voter suppression” because requiring proof of citizenship could block eligible voters from casting ballots.
Johnson said he’d like to see other election changes, too. He said the nation has “gone way too far in terms of early voting.”
“I think we need to tighten up the requirements for absentee voting,” Johnson said. “I’m opposed to mail in register or mail in balloting.’
Johnson claimed half the population didn’t believe presidential elections in 2016 and 2020 were “legitimate.”
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Johnson says ‘optics are not looking good’ following fatal shootings by federal immigration agents
Several callers during Johnson’s town hall criticized the killings of two Minnesota residents in recent weeks by federal immigration agents during a surge in Minneapolis ordered by the Trump administration.
One caller, Jeff from Chippewa Falls, identified himself as a retired law enforcement officer, telling Johnson local police wouldn’t condone “pushing people down, getting out and pointing guns at people, even if they think they’re a suspect.”
“So, I think there needs to be a code of conduct for ICE,” he told Johnson. “The optics of what people are seeing is just people being brutalized by law enforcement and gives law enforcement as a whole a black eye.”
Johnson agreed that “the optics are not looking good.”
“But understand how many of the thousands of law enforcement actions that have taken place, there haven’t been those kinds of, you know, filmed abuses,” Johnson said.
Johnson said sometimes when law enforcement is arresting “some pretty bad people” who resist, “if it was filmed, it wouldn’t look pretty.”
“Even though there may have been some excesses, I’m not going to say there haven’t been, but I think it’s being blown out of proportion in terms of the magnitude of what ICE is trying to accomplish,” said Johnson.
As for the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota, Johnson said people should give law enforcement the benefit of the doubt, “but a full investigation should be undertaken.”
Johnson asks ‘what’s the point’ of bringing a gun to peaceful protest?
In the wake of Pretti’s killing, Trump and members of his administration have made gun rights advocates uneasy by claiming that people can’t bring firearms to protests. Seconds before he was shot, agents removed a concealed handgun from Pretti, which he was licensed to carry in Minnesota.
On Monday, Jeanine Pirro, Trump’s U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, threatened to arrest anyone who enters the capital with a gun, whether or not they’re licensed to carry in other states.
A caller named Timothy in Hudson asked Johnson where he stands. The senator said he’s a “strong defender of Second Amendment rights” and said different states have different laws on how to carry guns.
“I would recommend, if you’re going to a peaceful protest, personally, I wouldn’t carry a gun,” said Johnson. “What’s the point?”
One of the last questions Johnson fielded came from a woman who asked whether he’d run for reelection. Johnson, who ran for a third term in the Senate in 2022 after previously stating he’d step away after two, said “you never say never.”
“But again, I’ve got three years left left in this term,” said Johnson.
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