Johnson won’t say whether he’ll appear with Trump before election

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, will not say whether he’ll appear with Republican nominee for president Donald Trump before Election Day.

Talking to reporters following an event at Performance Micro Tool in Janesville, Johnson said he wasn’t aware of the just-announced Trump event in Wisconsin on Saturday.

“Quite honestly, that’s news to me,” Johnson said. “We’ve got our schedules laid out and all of a sudden he decides to come in here, so it all depends on how the schedules tie up.”

News 3 asked whether he felt he needed to attend some of the Trump events, as he’s brought up frequently by surrogates as a candidate that needs a strong get-out-the-vote effort.

“I’m in front all over the state of Wisconsin, in front of all kinds of audiences,” Johnson said. “I’ve got my campaign to run and I’ll focus on that.”

Johnson also would not say whether he’s been encouraged to embrace Trump in Wisconsin, as the GOP nominee is running ahead of Johnson in many parts of the state among Republican voters.

“I’ll continue to support areas of agreement on the big issues,” Johnson said.

The Oshkosh senator said he wouldn’t directly comment on controversy over Trump’s taxes, but also that he “wouldn’t defend the American tax code.”

The New York Times reported over the weekend that Trump lost nearly $1 billion in 1995, which would have potentially allowed him to avoid paying $50 million a year in taxable income for 18 years.

“We do legitimately allow loss carryforwards. If we didn’t do that, good businesses would be put out of business when they experienced tough times in a particular year,” Johnson said. “A lot of businesses are cyclical, so there is some real rationale to things like loss carryforwards, but I can’t comment any further on someone else’s tax returns.”

A spokesman for Russ Feingold said Trump and Johnson were both “multimillionaires who don’t think the rules apply to themselves.”