'That's still involvement': Reporter battles Ron Johnson on role in election overthrow plot

NBC 26 reporter Nina Sparano challenged Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) on his role in a plot to overthrow the 2020 presidential election results.

Johnson has previously said that his participation in the plot lasted only "seconds."

During an interview with NBC 26 this week, Johnson deflected questions about the Jan. 6 riot by pointing to violent protests that occurred during the summer of 2020.

"The news media focuses all on one day, which I condemned repeatedly," the senator said.

Sparano pressed Johnson on his participation in presenting an alternate slate of electors to then-Vice President Mike Pence in order to overturn the election results.

"I had virtually — you can't — I had no involvement," Johnson stuttered. "I received either three texts and I sent two texts or the other way around. My involvement, you know, my lack of involvement was seconds worth of texting."

"But that's still involvement," Sparano pointed out.

"But, you know, I was — was texted there had — something had to be delivered to the vice president," Johnson said. "I didn't know what it was. And was there somebody that could help arrange delivery? So then I talked to my chief of staff and he took care of it."

Johnson said he eventually discovered that Pence refused to accept the alternate slate of electors.

"That's the end of story," he insisted.

"But if he would have said yes, go ahead and deliver it, you didn't know what it was?" Sparano pressed.

"What — what — what would you do if you get a call from the president of the United States' lawyer wanting to get something to the vice president?" Johnson replied.

"But you didn't know what it was," the reporter pointed out. "Wouldn't you want to inquire what something is to hand to the vice president of the United States?"

"I didn't hand anything to the [vice president]," Johnson said. "I wasn't involved."

"But if he would have said sure," Sparano posited.

"I wasn't involved. You can make it seem — I wasn't involved," the senator repeated. "A couple texts. I few seconds of my time! I couldn't even remember what I had done, which is why it took a little while to piece it all together but, you know, we pieced it all together. I received three texts and I sent two."

Sparano wondered if Johnson's chief of staff went "rogue" in participating in the fake electors plot.

"He'd been to the White House," Johnson explained. "He knew these people. And they asked him to arrange and deliver something to the vice president. He contacted the people he knew. The vice president says we're not accepting anything. End of story."

"So, he knew what he was doing," Sparano observed.

"We weren't doing anything!" Johnson gasped. "Were we supposed to deliver something or not? Did the vice president want it? The vice president didn't. We didn't deliver anything."

Johnson went on to complain that the media was "trying to turn this into a story." He also refused to say whether he would testify if subpoenaed.

"There's nothing to subpoena me about," he asserted.

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