Thursday on Fox News Channel’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) reacted to the back-and-forth saga between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Donald Trump, which all began during a meeting at the White House earlier in the week.
Kennedy described Pelosi as a “fool” and lobbied for Trump not to engage Pelosi in arguments.
Partial transcript as follows:
CARLSON: Senator John Kennedy is a Republican and represents the proud State of Louisiana and he joins us tonight. Sir, thanks so much for coming on. Where are we in this battle of sorts? The Revolutionary War Battle of Concord between the President and the Speaker?
KENNEDY: In terms of the war of words. You and I both know President Trump. He is not a turn the other cheek kind of guy.
CARLSON: True.
KENNEDY: I think he believes if you turn the other cheek, you just get it in the neck. So Speaker Pelosi knows that. I’ve talked to people who were in the meeting. She baited him, he took the bait. If he asked my opinion, and he hasn’t, I would tell him to ignore her. When you argue with a fool, which just proves there are two.
Now, I don’t expect the President do that. The President is — I happened to visit with him last Friday. He is angry. And here’s why he is angry. He is being charged or I think he will be charged with a high crime or a high misdemeanor.
Anybody who knows a law book from a “J. Crew” catalog knows that requires and can’t mens rea. This whole case against him is going to come down to intent, and I believe whether others believe it or not, I believe that he believes that Ukraine — the Ukrainian government may have interfered in the 2016 election.
I believe that he believes that the Biden’s may have been involved in the impropriety in Ukraine and that he believes that it is an appropriate exercise of his foreign affairs powers to withhold Federal taxpayer money until he is certain that the impropriety has been investigated and that any Ukrainian officials who were involved are no longer in the government.
There is precedent for this. Some of my friends in the mainstream media may affect me when I say this, but Thomas Jefferson prosecuted Aaron Burr, had him prosecuted and investigated him, a political rival Ravel for treason.
He didn’t prosecute Burr because he was a political rival. He prosecuted him because he thought he had committed treason, and he happened to be a political rival. To me, this whole length is about intent and I can tell you based on my conversations with the President, he honestly believes that the investigation needs to go forward.
The second point I’d make, the Ukrainian government not the Ukrainian people, the Ukrainian government is historically and organically corrupt.
CARLSON: I’ve noticed.
KENNEDY: Yes. And when you say, okay, you investigated the Vice President and his son, can you show me the report? No. Can I see the evidence? No. Why are the allegations unfounded? I’m not saying they are founded. But why are they unfounded? Well, it’s because it’s been reported.
Well, who reported it? And then you go to them and they say, well, we haven’t seen it. They reported it.
Number two, and here is my final point. Now, suppose the Ukrainians did have a report. Who in God’s name over there are you going to believe?
CARLSON: True.
KENNEDY: I mean, I hope President Zelensky turns out better, Tucker. But the people who preceded him, looked to me like they’re all crooked as a barrel of snakes. And I honestly don’t know — I don’t understand Speaker Pelosi’s theory of her case.
CARLSON: And the fact that there’s been no vote on it, which strikes me as kind of shocking. Senator, thank you so much for that assessment.
KENNEDY: Thank you.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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