Just last year, U.S Senator Ron Johnson was one of Putin's pals, spending the All American holiday, the Fourth of July, in Mother Russia. Just days after returning from his little junket, he earned whatever goodies he got from the Russians by blowing off the Russian hacking of the 2016 elections. Surely it wasn't as a big as a threat to national security as, say, brown-skinned people seeking asylum in our country.
Fast forward to this year, and RoJo finds that he fell out of the Kremlin's favor when he was denied a visa to go to Russia next week. He said that it was really bad timing because he "sought to have direct conversations with Russian government officials to improve future relations with the United States." Translated, he meant he was hoping to score some of that Russian/NRA money and maybe a promise of more election meddling as he looks at a possible run for Wisconsin governor in 2022.
To put a stiff upper lip (if he actually had lips) to the rejection, RoJo tried to bluster his way saying that he was denied the visa because he wanted to slap Putin's wrist for their incursion into Ukraine:
"The path Vladimir Putin has chosen for Russia is a tragedy of historic proportions," Johnson said in a statement. "Unfortunately, Russian officials continue to play diplomatic games with this sincere effort and have denied me entrance to Russia. Regardless of this petty affront, I will continue to advocate a strong and resolute response to Russian aggression — and frank dialogue when possible.”
Then to show them that they didn't really hurt his feelings, RoJo tagged another little bit of snark at the bottom of his release:
Johnson's office in a press release about the denial said Johnson was one of the lead sponsors of legislation to rename the street in front of the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., after Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov, who was killed in 2015.
It looks like RoJo is going to have to do some serious butt kissing to get back in Putin's good graces. Otherwise, he'll just have to learn to live off his American graft.
