Sen. Ron Johnson Booed After Debate Answer About Rival’s ‘Admirable’ Qualities Backfires

Moderators of the second debate between incumbent Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and his challenger, Democratic Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, tried to end the contest on a positive note — by asking them each candidate to say something nice about the other.

But Johnson just couldn’t bring himself to do it — and ended up being booed by Thursday’s audience, who’d already laughed at one of his earlier wilder claims.

“So our final question here tonight is, both of you have been successful in life. You have 30 seconds here. Mr. Barnes, you go first. What do you find admirable about your opponent?” they were asked in video that’s now gone viral.

“Well, no seriously. I do think, you know, the senator has proven to be a family man, and I think that’s admirable. You know, that’s absolutely to be respected,” Barnes replied. “He speaks about his family. He’s done a lot to provide for them. I absolutely respect that.”

Johnson said he appreciated that his rival, with whom he is in a reported tight race, “had loving parents, a schoolteacher, father worked third shift” and basically a “good upbringing.”

Then he added: “I guess what puzzles me about that is with that upbringing, why has he turned against America? I mean, why does he find America awful? It puzzles me.”

The audience was not amused. “I said, we said something admirable,” the moderator told him, before ending the debate.