A video obtained by CNN showed Sen. Ron Johnson expressing his skepticism about climate change during a GOP luncheon last year.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Activists are parading a statue of Ron Johnson covered in cow poop around Milwaukee.The manure-covered statue made its first appearance in the city on Thursday.The statue is meant to call out Johnson for claiming in 2021 that climate change is “bullshit.”
A manure-covered statue of Sen. Ron Johnson is making its rounds around Milwaukee, a city in his home state of Wisconsin.
Progressive activist groups NextGen PAC and MoveOn unveiled the statue — which they call a “scatue,” per Associated Press journalist Scott Bauer — in Milwaukee on Thursday.
According to NextGen PAC, it is part of an attempt to get “climate-motivated voters” to have Johnson voted out at the upcoming midterm elections.
The statue is meant to call out Johnson for the comments he made at a GOP luncheon in 2021. At the event, he downplayed the effects of climate change while citing Lord Christopher Monckton — a British conservative pundit and climate change denier.
“I don’t know about you guys, but I think climate change is — as Lord Monckton said — bullshit,” Johnson was seen saying at the time. In a video obtained by CNN, Johson can be seen silently mouthing the word “bullshit” but not saying it out loud.
“By the way, it is,” Johnson quipped in the video.
The activists have taken the poop-covered statue of Johnson to his home state to protest his remarks.
“Ron Johnson thinks the climate change devastating communities across the country is ‘bullshit.’ We disagree, and think he’s actually projecting,” MoveOn wrote in a tweet on Thursday.
Ron Johnson thinks the climate change devastating communities across the country is “bullshit.”
We disagree, and think he’s actually projecting. https://t.co/BbhSQ986Ju pic.twitter.com/vR6CvNsjLE
— MoveOn (@MoveOn) September 29, 2022
In a separate tweet that day, MoveOn posted photos of climate activists gathered around the dung-plastered statue, demanding that Wisconsinites “deserve a senator who will act on climate change.”
Today in Milwaukee, we rallied with @nextgenpaction and MoveOn members to expose climate denier Ron Johnson. Wisconsinites deserve a senator who will act on climate change. #RojoMustGo!
Join us in defeating Johnson: https://t.co/vMc1BX40q5 pic.twitter.com/fd73pGhtTJ
— MoveOn (@MoveOn) September 29, 2022
NextGen also posted some snaps of the “scatue,” saying that the group was joining MoveOn to “call out Ron Johnson’s bullsh*t… literally.”
The people in Wisconsin deserve a senator who believes in climate change and won’t take money from the fossil fuel industry to get richer himself.
That’s why we joined @MoveOn in Milwaukee today to call out Ron Johnson’s bullsh*t… literally. 💩
Say it with us: #RoJoMustGo! pic.twitter.com/VQO2AVN2Iv
— NextGen PAC (@nextgenpaction) September 29, 2022
Representatives for NextGen, MoveOn, and Johnson did not immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment.