Sen. Johnson Responds To Bombing

U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisc) told constituents today that the country needs to maintain a strong national defense, when asked about the bombing at the Boston marathon.

The Senator’s comments come as it remains unclear who carried out the attack and whether they were foreign or domestic.

Speaking to constituents via a telephone town hall, Johnson was asked how he felt about the events in Boston. Johnson said it was important to understand that the number of good people in the United States and the world, “vastly outnumber the evildoers.”

“But it’s up to us good people to remain vigilant, and that’s what we have to do. We need to make sure that from a standpoint of national security, that it remains a high priority.”

Johnson continued:

“I realize so many Americans would rather just come on home–‘Let’s isolate ourselves.’ We live in a global economy. Whether we like it or not, we are the world’s leader. And when America doesn’t lead, it creates voids, it creates vacuums of leadership in the world and very evil people fill in those voids. So we have to maintain a strong national defense, we need to maintain a strong intelligence-gathering capability.”

Both Johnson and fellow Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc) said their hearts went out to the victims of the tragedy. Baldwin said in a written statement that we do not know all the facts and are at the beginning of this investigation. She said it was clear the FBI was responding to it as an act of terrorism and those responsible would be brought to justice.

Correction: The original headline of this article was, “Sen. Johnson: We Must Ensure Bombings Remain High National Security Priority.” Johnson actually said that national security itself, not the Boston bombings, should remain a high priority.