Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin has consistently fought for transparency and answers for the American people. Johnson shared his latest push for transparency with Steve Deace on the "Steve Deace Show" Tuesday as he and many others across the country are still hungry for answers.
Over a year has passed since Thomas Matthew Crooks fired shots at former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, nearly assassinating the incoming leader of the free world. Despite the time that has elapsed, the American people still know little about the assassination attempt or the would-be assassin himself.
Johnson decided to take matters into his own hands.
"An awful lot of what we do know, my investigatory staff, just by calling local law enforcement shortly after Butler ... were able to develop a pretty detailed timeline," Johnson told Deace. "We published a preliminary report, laid out all of the failures of the security plan of the Secret Service in Butler. Then, within two weeks, the FBI pretty well took over the investigation, and everybody clammed up."
"I assumed when President Trump won the election that he would be appointing people that would dig into this, investigate it, and release that to the public," Johnson added. "All of a sudden, the one-year anniversary is upon us, and nothing has really been released."
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Johnson decided to take matters into his own hands by issuing what he called a "friendly subpoena" to FBI Director Kash Patel for all documents related to the Butler assassination attempt.
"I issued what I consider a friendly subpoena to Kash Patel, just basically reminding him, hey, the public has a right to know what happened in Butler," Johnson said. "They have a right to know what happened in West Palm Beach there, in terms of the second assassination attempt. ... There are an awful lot of unanswered questions here that deserve answers."
Johnson's subpoena does not address the second assassination attempt.
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"I understand the challenges," Johnson added. "But all that being said, I would still think this would be the priority of President Trump's administration to get to the bottom of the assassination and make everything they found out public."
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President Donald Trump's Big, Beautiful Bill passed a major procedural milestone at 11:07 p.m. Saturday night, when the United States Senate voted 51-49 to invoke cloture. Cloture is an essential step in the upper legislative chamber, limiting the remaining time members have to debate and starting the countdown to when they can vote on passage.
The late-night vote was a close call on a lengthy and arduous process. Vice President J.D. Vance was on hand at the Capitol from around 8:20 p.m. on, in case his vote was needed. In his Executive Branch capacity, Vance serves as president of the Senate -- a constitutional role that empowers him to preside over Senate proceedings and cast the tie-breaking vote in cases of gridlock.
In the end, his vote was not needed for this hurdle; Republican Sen. Ron Johnson (Wisc.) -- a Trump ally but also a fiscal hawk and vocal critic of the bill -- switched his vote to a yes, allowing cloture to proceed. Republican Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.) and Thom Tillis (N.C.) voted no. Tillis's no vote was based on objections to restrictions the bill will place on states gaming their end of the 50-50 Medicaid expenses split with the federal government. Paul, a D.C. libertarian, was never counted on for a "yes."
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The Big, Beautiful Bill, or H.R. (House Resolution) 1, as it's officially designated, funds key aspects of the White House's agenda, from deportations to border enforcement, making his first-term tax cuts permanent and adding no taxes on tips or overtime. It will be the signature legislative accomplishment of Trump's first year back in the Oval Office.
Cloture is a Senate procedure that limits further debate on a bill -- in this case, to 10 hours each, for the Republican and Democratic parties. Democrats drew the process out further by exercising their right to have Senate clerks read the bill first -- no small process for a 940-page bill. At 7:35 a.m., the Senate press gallery tweeted clerks had completed 470 pages of reading, or half of the bill, in the preceding 8 hours and 27 minutes -- setting them up for completion early Sunday evening.
Once they're done, Republicans are expected to yield most of their 10 hours -- starting the 10-hour timer for Democrats to debate passage overnight. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) will be able to hold a final vote by early Monday morning.
If the Senate passes the bill, es expected after a successful cloture vote, it will go the House of Representatives, where the president and his legislative affairs team are actively engaged in courting Republican holdouts and critics to vote yes.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., is pressing the Pentagon on its efforts to reinstate military troops fired by the Biden administration for forgoing the Covid shot, the senator revealed Thursday. In his Tuesday letter, the Wisconsin Republican asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to provide an update on what the Defense Department is doing to return service […]
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