Republican Senator Ron Johnson was booed by members of the audience during his second debate against his Democratic opponent Wisconsin. Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes on Thursday night.
Some people in the crowd loudly booed the U.S. senator from Wisconsin when he responded to a question about what he found admirable about Barnes by accusing the Democrat of being "against America."
Johnson, who has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump, has been favored to win re-election when midterms take place less than four weeks from now.
At the end of Thursday's debate, the candidates were asked what they found admirable in their opponent with Barnes saying that the senator was a "family man" and added that "that's absolutely to respected. He speaks about his family. He's done a lot to provide for them. I absolutely respect that."
Johnson responded to the same question, initially appearing to praise Barnes before turning to criticism.
"I appreciate that fact that Lt. Governor Barnes had loving parents. A schoolteacher. Father worked through shifts, so he had a good upbringing," Johnson said.
"I guess what puzzles me about that is, with that upbringing, why has he turned against America?" Johnson went on.
That comment elicited loud boos from the crowd as Johnson tried to continue with his remarks.
Earlier in the debate, Johnson elicited some laughter from the crowd when he said it had cost more money not to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border than it would have cost to build it.
The senator also drew laughter from the audience when he said that the "FBI set me up with a corrupt briefing and then leaked that to smear me" in response to criticism from Barnes.
In 2020, the FBI briefed Johnson that he was the target of a disinformation effort by Moscow aimed at making the senator useful to Russia. Johnson confirmed to The Washington Post in 2021that he had been briefed on the matter.
On Thursday, Johnson said he has been "trying to uncover and expose" corruption at the FBI but that remark was met with some laughs.
Following the debate, the Johnson campaign issued a press release calling the senator the "clear winner" of the second debate.
"The policies Barnes supports are dangerous for Wisconsin—a fact Johnson repeatedly pointed out during the debate tonight," the senator's campaign said.
Barnes' campaign also declared victory in a statement following the debate.
The Barnes campaign is already fundraising off the back of Johnson's debate performance, with the lieutenant governor's Twitter account offering a $30 t-shirt saying "The FBI Set Me Up."
"@RonJohnsonWI had a tough night...so we made this shirt to cheer him up," the tweet said.
Newsweek has asked the Johnson and Barnes campaigns for comment.
Analysis from poll tracker FiveThirtyEight shows that Johnson is favored to win the Wisconsin Senate race, with a 70 percent chance of victory.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Darragh Roche is a U.S. News Reporter based in Limerick, Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. politics. He has ... Read more
