Monica Lewinsky expertly mocks Ron Johnson over his reaction to Jan 6 revelations: ‘Dude, don’t blame the intern’

The anti-bullying advocate had a perfect response to Republican senator’s comment on his office’s involvement in a fake electors scheme

Jenna Amatulli
New York
Wednesday 22 June 2022 21:12 BST
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Senator Ron Johnson caught by reporters pretending to be on the phone to avoid questions

Monica Lewinsky’s Twitter account is a treasure trove of hits and her latest remarks to Sen Ron Johnson is no exception.

On Wednesday, the Vanity Fair contributor offered her two cents in response to a video of Mr Johnson that went viral on Tuesday. In the video, Mr Johnson is seen responding to some incendiary claims made about his office during Tuesday’s January 6 committee hearing and their handling of an envelope containing information about a fake electors scheme.

Mr Johnson tells reporters in the video that the envelope in question was likely passed along to then-vice president Mike Pence by “somebody from the House, some staff intern, you know, said we got to, the vice president needs this or whatever.”

“I wasn’t involved. I don’t know what they said. But, but, but somebody from the House delivered to a staff member in my office, my chief of staff called the vice president, ‘hey, we got this.’ And the vice president said ‘don’t deliver it,’ and we didn’t,” he says.

Notable former intern herself, Ms Lewinsky quote-tweeted the video with an expert quip: “dude. don’t blame the intern.”

Ms Lewinsky’s response is incredible for a myriad of reasons, not least of which because of how questionable Mr Johnson’s remarks are.

During the January 6 committee hearing on Tuesday, text messages between Sean Riley, Wisconsin Republican Sen Ron Johnson’s chief of staff, and Chris Hodgson, then-Vice President Mike Pence’s legislative director, were revealed and Riley explicitly says in them that “Johnson needs to hand something to VPOTUS please advise.” He goes on to say the item is an “alternative slate of electors for MI and WI because archivist didn’t receive them.”

Mr Hodgson then advised Mr Riley to “not give that” to Mr Pence.

When pressed on why he didn’t ask more questions about this list of alternate electors, Mr Johnson simply insisted that he never delivered the item and that this entire situation is a “non-story.” He doesn’t indicate how anyone wound up with the documents or identify the alleged intern he’s claiming was part of this ordeal.

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