Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) on Monday insisted that his disturbing rhetoric against members of Black Lives Matter while defending the overwhelmingly white Capitol rioters was “innocuous” and not “racial.”

“There was nothing racial about my comments, nothing whatsoever,” the perturbed senator explained in response to a reporter’s question. “This isn’t about race, this is about riots.”

Johnson told a conservative talk radio host last week that he was not frightened by the white mob of Trump supporters that stormed the Capitol Jan. 6. Even though more than 320 people have been arrested in the siege — including two men charged in an attack on a police officer who died — Johnson deemed the rioters people who “love this country.”

They “truly respect law enforcement [and] would never do anything to break a law,” he added.

The right-wing senator said, however, that he would have been “concerned” if members of Black Lives Matter or antifa had been in the Capitol that day.