'Panicked' Sen. Ron Johnson touts Trump to Wisconsin leaders

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A “panicked” Sen. Ron Johnson urged members of the state chamber of commerce in battleground Wisconsin on Wednesday to vote for President Donald Trump, saying he has been praying for a victory and “the other side is not in love with this country.”

Johnson, a Republican in his second term, delivered a harsh assessment of what he thinks a win by Democrat Joe Biden would mean during a virtual meeting of Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce. Johnson decried “anarchists” and “rioters” who he said “are going to dictate to you what you think and how you have to act.”

“This is the greatest threat to our freedom in my lifetime, which is why I am more panicked today, why I’m not being particularly uplifting," Johnson said. "I’m telling you this so that you all use your positions, your position of influence every minute of your time between now and the election to get everybody to come out and vote.”

Johnson, a close ally of Trump, said he understands that people in Wisconsin “are not real nuts about a New York street fighter. We don’t like his tweets. We don’t like the way he behaves. But he actually believes in this country. He thinks it’s great. He knows it’s great. He wakes up every day trying to make it better, OK? The other side is not in love with this country."

Polls have shown Biden with a narrow lead in Wisconsin, a state Trump won by fewer than 23,000 votes in 2016.

Johnson, who is not on the ballot this year, said that if Democrats take majority control of the Senate, “They will never relinquish power. And that is not an overstatement.”

Phil Shulman, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Democratic Party, called Johnson the state's “biggest embarrassment.”

“Instead of using his perch in the Senate to...