MSNBC’s Charlie Sykes Goes to Town on Ron Johnson for Vaccine Skepticism: ‘A Vesuvius of Wrongness’

For nearly a quarter of a century, Charlie Sykes hosted a conservative talk radio show in Milwaukee. Now, he’s making clear he’s got little use for a Republican senator from the Badger state.

Appearing on The ReidOut Friday, Sykes — now an editor at large for The Bulwark and a columnist for MSNBC — thoroughly bashed Sen. Ron Johnson for expressing deep skepticism about the Covid-19 vaccines. Johnson made the comments on a right wing radio show — saying the push to make sure everyone is vaccinated makes him “highly suspicious.

“You’ve got a vaccine,” Johnson said. “Science is telling you it’s very, very effective. Why is this big push to make sure everybody gets a vaccine, to the point when you better impose it, you’re going to shame people, you’re going to force them to carry a card to prove that they’ve been vaccinated so they can just stay in society. I’m getting highly suspicious of what’s happening here.”

During his Friday night hit on MSNBC, Sykes went to town on the Wisconsin Republican — accusing him of donning a “tinfoil hat of conspiracy.”

“Ron Johnson has become a Vesuvius of wrongness here,” Sykes said. He added, “The ignorance. The recklessness. The disregard for science. And the lack of human compassion.”

Host Joy Reid echoed her guest’s sentiments and suggested he may be willfully deceiving his constituents because he knows better than what he’s saying publicly.

“I’m going to presume he’s not an idiot,” Reid said, before laughing, and promptly reconsidering. “Well, maybe I shouldn’t presume that.”

Watch above, via MSNBC.