Senator John Kennedy details classified drug boat strikes off Venezuela, confirming their legality and effectiveness against narco-terrorists while warning that a potential Democratic House victory could trigger repeated impeachments of President Trump. He critiques the "Bolshevik wing" of Democrats led by Ilhan Omar and AOC, arguing inflation dropped from 9% to 3% under Biden but remains man-made, and urges tax cuts despite Senator Thune's holdout on reconciliation bills. Ultimately, Kennedy emphasizes that pragmatic governance requires killing bad ideas to prevent legislative gridlock from halting America's response to critical needs. [Automatically generated summary]
I mean, we just left, for example, a classified briefing with Senator or now Secretary Rubio and Secretary Ed Seth and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs about what's going on with the narco-terrorists off the coast of Venezuela.
Trump's doing something.
I mean, it's working.
It's been highly effective.
It's legal, as was explained to us.
The intelligence is exquisitely good.
It's always been good.
But we're acting on it.
And for years, we've talked about a war on drugs.
This is literally a war on drugs.
These people that we are killing, we're killing them before they can kill our kids.
And it is working.
Many of the countries in South and Central America are becoming more cooperative.
Mexico is becoming more cooperative.
They're not where we want them, but, I mean, it's working.
I don't think it's a news flash that our country is divided.
But within the left and the right, I think you have a large group of people that predictably and accurately say, okay, we don't care what your politics are, just do something.
Because both sides and leadership on both sides has this propensity to talk and do nothing.
President Trump, whether you agree with him or not, he's done a lot.
I mean, we just left, for example, a classified briefing with Senator or now Secretary Rubio and Secretary Ed Seth and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs about what's going on with the narco-terrorists off the coast of Venezuela.
Trump's doing something.
I mean, it's working.
It's been highly effective.
It's legal, as was explained to us.
The intelligence is exquisitely good.
It's always been good.
But we're acting on it.
And for years, we've talked about a war on drugs.
This is literally a war on drugs.
These people that we are killing, we're killing them before they can kill our kids.
And it is working.
Many of the countries in South and Central America are becoming more cooperative.
Mexico is becoming more cooperative.
They're not where we want them, but I mean, it's working.
I think we've got to address the cost of living issue.
Listen, elections have won or lost on the things that people, when moms and dads lie down to sleep at night and can't, what are they worrying about?
Elections are won and lost on which side addresses those issues.
And there's no question, no question, the cost of living is one of those.
Now, the President and Congress and frankly, the Federal Reserve have done a pretty good job on inflation.
Inflation was 9%.
Inflation, it didn't originate in a bat.
It was man-made, and that man's name was Joe Biden.
We've gotten it down.
President Trump and the Republicans in Congress and the Federal Reserve have gotten it down to 3%.
But what does that mean?
That means that prices, they're still going up, not as quickly as they were, but they're still going up 3%.
And we've got to address that.
There's only so much the president can do.
Congress has got to do its job.
Here's what I have urged, urged is probably the wrong word.
I'm being polite.
Senator Thune to do.
I have hit Senator Thune with everything but a chair.
I've been chasing him like he stole Christmas.
I'm saying, look, Senator Thune, bring another reconciliation bill to deal with the cost of living.
We don't have to have any Democratic votes.
We would welcome them, but we can do it with all Republican votes, just like we did the one big, beautiful bill.
We've got legislation already to lower the cost of housing.
We've got over 200 tax changes we can make to stimulate the economy and increase wages.
We can address the health care issue, the fiasco of Obamacare.
We can talk about PBMs.
Now, we have to do that within the confines of the Budget Control Act.
I don't want to get us off in the weeds.
And some people say, well, Budget Controlled Act won't let us do that.
Maybe, maybe not.
It depends on the parliamentarians ruling.
But the last time we passed meaningful legislation was One Big Beautiful Bill.
And when it takes effect this year, it's going to help.
But the American people want us to see us do more.
And for the life of me, I just don't understand.
Senator Thune is my friend, but I do not understand why he would not bring a bill and let us put together a bill.
He controls the floor.
I can put together a bill, but I can't bring it to the floor without his permission.
If Chuck Schumer had the authority right now to pass virtually anything he wants to within the confines of the Budget Control Act, with only Democratic votes, what do you think he's going to do?
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I mean, do you view that simply that Democrats, as a general rule, believe in more government, so they're willing to do whatever it takes via government to get their goals accomplished, where Republicans generally don't.
Do you think some of this is just a speed issue in that Biden screwed up so much over the course of whether it was Biden or whoever was in charge, they screwed up so much that there's a certain impatience.
Trump's only been back in office for 11 months.
So many good things have happened, but people just kind of want everything like that.
How worried are you that if the Democrats get control of the House and if the midterms go poorly, that it really, maybe for the first time in modern way, fundamentally changes the direction of the country?
Like we got so close to the end in some way with Biden.
I asked you this a couple weeks ago, but I'm curious if anything's changed.
When you're talking to your Democrat colleagues, and you mentioned Schumer before, and it seems to me that he's kind of lost control of the asylum over there.
Are any of them privately saying to you, man, we wish that it hadn't gone this far left, that maybe we should be listening a little more to the Fettermans and a little bit less to the Ilhan Omars, let's say?
And it's gotten, I don't know that I wouldn't say they're, well, I don't know whether they're the majority of the party or not, but they're certainly the loudest.
I rode in an elevator with him down to what we call our skiff where we have our classified briefings.
And we were just talking.
We talked about the horrible killings in Australia.
So I get along well with Chuck.
But Chuck is a political, a deeply political animal.
He's been in Washington a long time.
He sees everything, almost everything, through a political lens.
And right now, he knows what you know, what I know.
Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez is going to do one or two things, one of three things.
She's either going to run for Speaker of the House if the Democrats take control, she's going to run against Chuck Schumer for the Senate, or she's going to run for president.
And you say, well, you know, she's nutty as a fruitcake.
And so everything, in my opinion, almost everything, I don't want to be unfair, that Senator Schumer is doing is to try to get the left, the loony left, the Bolshevik wing of his party, to love him.
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Believe it or not, I have only driven through Louisiana, so I'm going to make a commitment.
When I pray, I ask God, don't let me hate because it's hard in Washington.
This is a Democratic town.
Not just the politicians, but the bureaucrats, the think tanks, the universities, the press.
And I told this story in the book.
I said, you know, I live in this overpriced little Capitol Hill apartment.
And some days when I'm going to work, I give myself a pep talk and I say, Kennedy, don't hate.
You know, today you're going to follow Jesus.
And I do.
By 10 o'clock, I still want to follow Jesus, but I want to slap somebody.
That's human nature.
So, yeah, you have days when you get discouraged, but I'm old enough and experienced enough that, you know, falling down is not the worst thing that can happen to you.
The worst thing that can happen to you is not getting up.