BUCK: We have with us now Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. Senator Johnson, always great to have you, sir.

SEN. JOHNSON: Guys, hope you’re doing well.

BUCK: Let’s just start with this. You have some colleagues upon Capitol Hill this morning getting testimony from Rochelle Walensky — double masked, I might add. Dr. Fauci is masked when he’s not answering, unmasked when he is answering. They’re trying to tell us and convince the public that they pretty much expected all this. They’re in control. They have the answers. What do you think? Because it really is actually up to the political apparatus to make these decisions, and Fauci shouldn’t be calling all the shots as the policy czar.

SEN. JOHNSON: Well, Fauci is science, so we’re not supposed to question him at all. But let’s face it, guys: 835,000 Americans dead. We still have really no approved early treatments from those clowns — and that’s being kind to them. That has been the greatest travesty. But when there literally is a cornucopia of drugs — cheap, generic, widely available drugs that are effective, not just Ivermectin. Hydroxychloroquine. There’s a host of others.

There are different stages to this disease, and so there are doctors that have had the courage and the passion to treat covid. Had more doctors had their eyes open, had these agencies led and researched and recommended these drugs, hundreds of thousands of Americans would be alive today. They didn’t have to die. So that’s the real travesty. I hold Fauci and the Biden administration and Collins and Walensky — I hold them — accountable for that.

And, oh, by the way, the other thing they’re ignoring, natural immunity plus vaccine injuries. The VAERS report. This is their data, not mine, the VAERS report. We’ve received a million adverse on events with the covid vaccines, 21,382 deaths reported on VAERS associated with the vaccines. Now, again, doesn’t prove causation, but it’s something they ought to be concerned about, and they’re not. So, they haven’t been transparent. They haven’t been honest.

Their response to covid has been a miserable failure. The lost learning, the human toll, the economic devastation of their shutting down? No, they’re not the science. Science questions. Science is skeptical. Science is always searching for better answers. They haven’t. They’ve had one solution to this: vaccine, vaccine, vaccine. I know it’s put a lot of money in Big Pharma’s pockets. The other solutions now are gonna be… I hope, by the way, these drugs work. I have my doubts. But the therapies that they’re promoting, Pfizer and Merck, $500 and $700 bucks a pop versus, again, the cheap generic drugs. They have not had solutions. Their response has been a miserable failure. They should be held accountable.

CLAY: Senator Johnson, you’re running for reelection. Thank you for doing that. I think the people of Wisconsin need your voice. Would you be running for reelection if covid hadn’t happened, or do you think the dishonesty that you have seen from covid since 2020 — because I think your initial plan was to retire — has been one of the prompting reasons why you feel the need to continue?

SEN. JOHNSON: Yeah, there’s no doubt about that. It’s a really big factor. Again, the dishonesty, the lack of transparency of these agencies, but just the loss of confidence — the legitimate loss of confidence we have in these institutions. Whether it’s the FBI and their corrupt investigation, the Department of Justice, other health agencies, the legacy media, Big Tech, social media that has censored early treatment, and just basically Democrat governance.

I actually appreciated President Biden in his inauguration saying his number one goal was healing and unifying this nation. He hasn’t done that. Just about everything he’s done has further divided this nation. So, no, when I ran in the 2016, America looked completely different. Now it really does feel like this nation is being torn apart, and I’m in a position where I think I can help improve thing, make America safer and more secure. That in the end is why I decided to run again because I think I can help improve things.

BUCK: Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin with us now, and as we just discussed, he is running for reelection. Senator Johnson, do you think that some of your Democrat colleagues in the Senate are starting to recognize that what has been done up to this point is, in fact, heavy-handed, often counterproductive and often ineffective when it comes to the Fauciite regime?

Do you think that there is an awakening given the massive failure of the vaccines to stop the spread? That’s a separate issue than individual protection. Are Democrats starting — even quietly behind closed doors — say to you, “We might need to start to figure out a way to stop panicking all the time” or do they view this as too politically useful?

SEN. JOHNSON: I haven’t seen it. Again, they’re all walking around with masks even if they’re double vaxxed plus boosted or even had the disease. I don’t wear a mask unless I’m absolutely forced to because I had covid and I feel well. If I didn’t feel well, first of all, I wouldn’t be walking around. I’d stay home. I wouldn’t… (laughs) I wouldn’t expose people to whatever I have. But, no, I don’t see that in terms of Democrats, in terms of coming to the reality that this response has been a miserable failure, and maybe — just maybe — we should have promoted things like early treatment that could have saved lives.

CLAY: Senator Johnson, what are you seeing from the data? I remember when you were on with us before like maybe a month ago or so you talked about who was dying with covid in the U.K., the vaccinated people. There’s better data out of the U.K. and out of Israel — which is an indictment of our CDC and also our scientific institutions in general. What are the latest numbers that you are seeing and reviewing? I‘m sure you saw CNN suddenly say, “Oh, it turns out a lot of people are hospitalized with covid as opposed to because of covid.” What’s the data look like in Israel and the U.K.?

SEN. JOHNSON: Well, let’s just take a look at America’s deaths per hundred thousand. We’re at about 248 as of about a week ago, 284 people per hundred thousand who have died. In Sweden… Remember everybody attacked Sweden? It’s 148 — a hundred deaths less per hundred thousand than in America. And, by the way, their kids all went to school. They didn’t wear masks; 1.8 million Swedish children, not one died from covid.

We’ve had 520 million doses of vaccine, 208 million Americans are fully vaxxed, and the pandemic’s not over. Does that tell you something? We have reports out of Denmark where you actually have potentially reversed efficacy, negative efficacy after about 90 days with the vaccine. So, the doctors I’ve been in touch with since the beginning have always been concerned about mass vaccination in the midst of a pandemic.

Could it be driving variants that evade the vaccine? What’s happening? You know, there is so much we still don’t know about the coronavirus, the vaccines, and covid as a disease. I would urge modesty in terms of what people say, all their pronouncements. And quite honestly, would urge caution as well. Nobody, nobody can tell you the long-term safety profile of the vaccines.

Nobody can, and when you have these type of safety signals on VAERS to keep pushing this on children when we do know — the science does tell us — they have an incredibly small risk and almost no risk of serious injury or death from covid, and yet we’re pushing an experimental vaccine on our children? There’s something really wrong about that, and for the vulnerable?

Listen, I’m a champion of Right to Try. I’m not anti-vax, was a big supporter of Operation Warp Speed. But then you have to look at what the result is, and the result is not what we wanted to see. It’s not as effective. It’s not as safe. Would urge caution. Where’s the caution coming out of the Biden administration, out of Fauci, out of Walensky, out of Collins? There is none. They’ve had a single — single — approach to this: vaccine, vaccine, vaccine or whatever will put a lot of money in Big Pharma’s pockets. Everything else they’re pushing are novel, expensive drugs, and they’ve completely ignored cheap, generic, widely available drugs. This has been a travesty. This is a scandal.

BUCK: Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. Senator, we appreciate you joining us here on Clay and Buck. Thanks so much.

SEN. JOHNSON: Could I mention my website: RonJohnsonforSenate.com. I’m gonna need a lot of help. RonJohnsonforSenate.com.

BUCK: There we go.

CLAY: Good luck in the election, sir. Thanks for running.

SEN. JOHNSON: Take care.