Monday on FNC’s “Hannity,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) criticized the U.S. Senate as a body for its inability to pass the SAVE America Act.
Kennedy blamed the House of Representatives but also questioned his Republican colleagues for failing to support efforts to pass the legislation.
“I want to be fair, Sean,” Kennedy said. “There are times that I’m very proud of the United States Senate. I was proud when we passed the Lindsey Graham Russian sanctions bill with 85, 86 votes. But there are other times when the Senate is like high school, but no one ever graduates. We blow opportunities like it’s our job. I was very disappointed that we did not vote on the House resolution, budget resolution to start the reconciliation process to hopefully lead to more money to our military and to pass the SAVE Act. We — and this was not a vote — would not have been a vote to actually pass those things. It would have just been a vote to allow us to try.”
He continued, “You can’t blame this one on Senator Thune. We had a big meeting Friday night to talk about it. I think if a majority of the conference had wanted to go forward, Senator Thune was ready to do it. But a majority of the conference didn’t. And I get that we were short a few votes but I still believe we should have taken a couple of extra days. It would not have thrown the Earth out of orbit to try to talk to those folks who were reluctant to vote for it. I know them all. They’re reasonable people. But we chose not to do that. And I know the party line is that we’re going to do it when we get back, but I think our chances of getting it passed have gone down immeasurably.”
“Look, all it would take is a majority vote,” Kennedy added.
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