The fizzling of a midterm red wave was "very disappointing" to Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who held on to his seat, but he asks on Newsmax just how bad does it have to get for Americans to reject Democrats.
"How bad do conditions have to get in this country before Democrat voters wake up and realize that their policies and the governance of the Democrat leaders is literally destroying this country," Johnson, who held Wisconsin by just 1 point, told Wednesday's "Rob Schmitt Tonight." "I mean, you've got 40-year high inflation, record gas prices, skyrocketing crime, open border of flooded deadly drugs: I just call the list of horribles. It doesn't get much worse than that.
"And yet Democrats just kind of shrugged it all off."
Notably, having the mainstream media siding with the Democrats has obscured the narratives in elections, Johnson lamented to hosts Rob Schmitt.
"It's not a fair fight," he said. "It's not a level playing field. We have a mainstream media that, really, they're not journalists – so many of them are advocates for the left. They don't interview someone like me. They argue with me.
"So we, we've got the real challenge in terms of getting our message out without having to pay, you know, millions of millions of dollars."
Johnson was targeted by President Joe Biden during the White House news conference Wednesday, as the president "lied" about Johnson's alleged desire to do away with Social Security and Medicare.
"He's lying to the American public, but he can lie with impunity because the mainstream media won't hold him accountable," Johnson said. "They don't ask him the tough questions. They haven't asked him those tough questions during his campaign and really through his presidency, and they certainly didn't ask my opponent, Mandela Barnes, the tough questions during this campaign."
Johnson said he wants to "save Social Security," not end it, as Biden suggests, but it needs to be funded and the Democrats' spending is what is truly putting Social Security and Medicare at risk.
"The trust fund runs out in 2035," Johnson said. "Nobody is talking about it. Nobody's really discussing the fact that, you know, benefits already exceed the payroll tax. Nobody's talking about what happens when that trust fund runs out.
"Are we going to have the financial wherewithal to plus up the benefits to match the promises made? Again, these guys that could care less about the truth. They lie through their teeth."
Johnson noted the media being hostile to him has put his Senate seat in danger against Barnes, because in Wisconsin being a 48%-48% split between party registrations, the battle remains for the 4% in the middle – and the media pushes that toward Democrats, according to Johnson.
"You're literally starting an election, battling over about 4% of the electorate and so it's difficult, and it's even more difficult for conservatives when you have a very liberal mainstream media, in my case, that literally is trying to politically destroy me for two years prior to the election," Johnson said.
About NEWSMAX TV:
NEWSMAX is the fastest-growing cable news channel in America!
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.