For the past few months, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) has been trying to turn himself into a silk purse after being a sow’s ear for so many years. He’s trying to rebuild his image now that his Democratic challenger, Mandela Barnes, the U.S.’s first African-American Lt. Governor, is gaining on him.

As Vanity Fair notes, the road to reelection is becoming decidedly less cushy for Johnson because some polls show Barnes well ahead of the anti-marriage equality, conspiracy theory promoting GOPer.

Now he’s trying to clean up those messy rumors that he’s a “tool” for Russia by blaming Democrats for allegedly engaging in voter suppression, Raw Story reports. How he says this stuff with a straight face I’ll never know.

On Sunday, Johnson was interviewed by Fox News host Maria Bartiromo who suggested there are good reasons to “distrust and question” the honesty of elections. However, as we saw in the 2020 election, Republicans are the main reason to “distrust and question” elections.

But facts are frequently wasted on Bartiromo and Johnson.

“That was part of what went on in 2020,” the Fox News host told Johnson. “People were questioning. Well, can we trust them? We know what they just did in the Russia collusion hoax.”

“You say they are interfering with your election!” Bartiromo asserted, because of these smears on you.”

So of course it wasn’t enough for Bartiromo to leave it at that and she had to ask Johnson why he “believed he was being smeared:”

“Tell me about your opponent and why you believe you are being smeared and this is the result: 50 percent for [Mandela] Barnes, 46 percent for Johnson in the Wisconsin race [polls].”

That led Johnson to insist Democrats “interfered in the 2020 election far greater than  anything Russia or China could ever do.”

Then he blamed the Democrats by claiming they leaked a briefing about his connections to Russia.

“Basically saying that I’m a tool of Russia, which I am not,” Johnson said. “It’s a completely false accusation. This Wisconsin press picks that up and [some] people in Wisconsin think I’m a tool of Vladimir Putin.”

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Johnson asserted. “But they have smeared me publicly and they just might impact the 2022 election here in Wisconsin as well. Because, let’s face it, Maria, they do not want me reelected because I would be chairman on the permanent subcommittee on investigations. They know they will investigation their corruption.”

Says the man who agreed to hand fake slates of electors to then-Vice President Mike Pence as a violent mob rioted inside the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021. The man who has taken in more than $1,269,486 in donations from the National Rifle Association.

Johnson is nothing if not perfidious. You can find out more about just how much he’s received from gun rights interests here.

I’ve also included a clip of Bartiromo and Johnson spreading nonsense below.