Likely Republican Senate nominee claims he asked military superiors for permission to shoot feral cats in Qumar
Friday, May 9th, 2024
Congressman Tim Johnson (R-FL), the likely Republican Senate nominee in Florida, attracted outrage after a video of a Thursday town hall was released where the sophomore congressman expressed his distaste for cats after discussing a viral photo that compared him to a cat with large ears and a large nose, claiming to have asked military commanders to shoot feral cats while stationed in Qumar.
"I'm a dog guy," Johnson is recorded saying in the clip. "I don't like cats. Some people might like them, but I don't...I can tell you how much I don't like them: I think I was the only American officer who asked permission to designate feral cats as hostiles." After attendees laugh, Johnson adds. "I really did. They of course said 'no', but if it had been up to me, there wouldn't have been a single feral [cat] within ten kilometers of my company's position."
Johnson, the clear frontrunner in the Republican primary to oust Alicia DeSantos (D-FL), commanded a Marine company during the first few months of the occupation of Qumar, before leaving the military to care for his ailing mother following his father's death in 2017. He frequently invoked his military service during his first run for elected office in 2018, when he defeated incumbent Maria Garcia Trenton (D). In Congress, Johnson has compiled a conservative voting record, notably opposing the inclusion of gender identity into civil rights protections, among other culture war issues.
Both the DeSantos campaign and liberal political action committees have already responded with attack ads using clips from the video, while the Johnson campaign says the video clips were "taken out of context" after previously claiming the video was edited using artificial intelligence. Polls taken before the video was released had have the Sarasota-based congressman leading his nearest Republican opponent by 30 percent ahead of the August primary, while tied with DeSantos in a hypothetical head-to-head match-up.
The photo that prompted Johnson (right) to discuss his violent dislike of cats (photo: A. Driver)