Revealing the One Detail About Drug Boat Strikes That Dems Wish Wasn't True | John Kennedy

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2:02Trump'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 Central America are becoming more cooperative. Mexico is becoming more cooperative. They're not where we want them, but, I mean, it's working.

2:53All right, Senator John Kennedy, you know, we had you on a couple weeks ago. I'm pretty sure my audience likes you more than they like me, so I don't know how I feel about this. I appreciate the sentiment, but I don't believe that. But thank you for saying it. I am glad to finally meet you in person and chat a little bit before you get out of town. Are you going to get out of here on time? Are they going to leave too many things untied so they keep you here for Christmas? Well, you know, this is our last week, of course. And I think we've got to do the National Defense Authorization Act. There could be a few surprises there.

3:27We've got some more confirmations. The big issue is the budget. And I don't know whether Thune's going to bring it to a vote on the floor or not. We've got one Republican holdout. You know, what he's asking for is frankly something we can't do. Who's the holdout right now? I don't want to say. We have a sort of common courtesy. Oh, I see. Holes are supposed to be confidential. I was subtly trying to break some news there. Let me just observe. Some people would rather be hated than ignored. And this person is kind of like that. He wants the attention of it. Gotcha. So you've been through this rodeo before.

4:08So what's it like in this week where you know you're coming up on a deadline, everyone wants to get out, you've got to finish work. I mean, is half of it just people just are like, all right, just sign something so we can get the hell out of here? No, actually, deadlines help. I mean, you know what Congress is like. Let me speak about the Senate because I never served in the House. Sometimes in the Senate, it can take days, weeks, months to get nothing done. I mean, it's just, but when we have a deadline and we know we have to do something, what's the old expression? The sight of the gallows concentrates the mind.

4:49You know, people get focused and go, okay, I got to make a decision here. I got to stop dithering and pontificating and make a decision. And that's so that's good or bad. Should we wait this long? No. If I were king for a day, I'm not. And I don't aspire to be. I would do it differently. But that's just the way it works. What do you make of a general state of politics right now? Just the sort of, you know, Trump, we got midterms coming in from where I sit. I keep saying everybody that's sitting in that chair today. I think Trump's just doing an absolute bang up job right now. It seems like maybe there's an optics problem or something.

5:25But what do you make of the general state of where things are at? Well, good question, Dave. I don't think it's a newsflash 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, 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.

6:20Trump'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 uh many of the countries in south and central america becoming more cooperative mexico is becoming more cooperative they're not where we want them but i mean it's working so did you see this what is at least as i understand it's still classified video of the double tap i'm completely with you on this i think a war goes two ways we've been we've been getting hit with the bad side of getting our kids killed with drugs and not doing anything.

7:18So I'm completely on board this. But, you know, there was all this kerfuffle about a second strike and a double tap and all that. Have you seen all that now, and do you feel confident around everything they did and all that kind of thing? Well, there is a very carefully defined set of rules in our military, unlike in some other countries. When you take prisoners of war, when you help survivors, when you don't. And let me just say, based on what I've seen, our military did it by the book. They did it by the book. Now, we have some people in Congress, in the Senate, mostly Democrats, some Republicans, who want to nitpick this.

8:02They want to nitpick it. They want to poke holes in it. But you can't, and that's their right. I mean, some people are just wrong on every issue. It's like it's a gift, you know, but they have the right to their opinion. Well, usually because they just take the opposite of what Trump's doing. Exactly, exactly. But it's been very effective. And I think most Americans say, okay, well, finally somebody's doing something. What do you think the Republicans have to do so that the midterms either don't go as poorly as most people are predicting or go well? I think we've got to address the cost of living issue.

8:43Listen, elections are 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 or lost on which side addresses those issues. And there's no question, no question, that 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%.

9:30But 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 said, 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.

10:16We'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, the Budget Control Act won't let us do that maybe, maybe not, it depends on the parliamentarian's 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 to see us do more.

11:07And for the life of me, I just don't understand. Senator Plathone 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'd do? Of course, of course, of course. He'd be on it like a hobo on a ham sandwich. And so why are we doing it? Right. As frustrating as you can tell.

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13:01And we wouldn't be passing bills that would necessarily grow government. For example, our health care bill, I want to reduce the parameters of Obamacare so people can buy insurance in the private sector. I want to pass bills, if we have to, without Democratic support, that reduces rules and regulations. Our business people spend probably$2 to$3 trillion, not billion, trillion dollars a year complying with rules and regulations. Those costs are passed on. If you get rid of 25 % of them, you'll see goods and services go down in price. That's less government. That's what I would do. But again, I can't bring the bill to the floor without John's permission.

13:50Do 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. Well, it could be. I mean, you may be on to something, Dave. And I don't mean to blame everything on Senator Thune. He's my friend. We just disagree on this. There's some other senators that are encouraging him to be cautious. But there's a whole group of us that are saying no.

14:26You know, we were elected to do something. And right now, the American people want us to do something on cost of living, among other things. I mean, we were very bold in our actions on immigration. It worked. It worked. We've been very bold in our actions on crime. It's worked. Crime is down. We've been very bold in terms of standing up to China and to Putin and to Iran. The president was very bold when he told Iran, you can't have a nuclear weapon. They said, watch us. The president said, watch me. You know, he knocked them into a new zip code. He should have done that. But we've got to be bold on the cost of living, in my opinion.

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16:25But is it a 50-50 thing of being out there trying to convey this stuff versus all the internal fights? Or how do you decide when you wake up every day how much of each you have to do? Well, every senator has his own style. All I can do is describe mine. I spend an enormous amount of time reading and studying. early in the morning, late at night, when I have time during the day, going to hearings. Part of it is messaging. Whoever wins the messaging war generally wins elections. But a lot of it is doing. In the role of a senator, I spend my time doing two things. Number one is trying to advance good ideas.

17:09I've passed a number of bills this Congress, and I'm very proud of that. So part of my job is to advance good ideas. But I see part of my job is to kill bad ideas. Kill bad ideas. I think that's this right here, right? That's right, and that's important. Right now, I spend about 50%, 50 % of my time on that. During the Biden administration, I spent 80 % of my time killing bad ideas and killing bad nominees. and it worked. And people think that when you're a senator, all you do is advance good ideas. That's only part of the job. How worried are you that if the Democrats get control of the House and if the midterms go poorly, that it really for maybe for the first time in modern way, fundamentally changes the direction of the country?

17:58Like we got so close to the end in some way with Biden. We seem to have gotten it back with Trump. But if he if the midterms go the wrong way, he ends up as lame duck. It's like they can bring all the damage back that much quicker. It's serious. I'm very worried about it. It's serious as an aneurysm, man, because I know what's going to happen. We're more likely, I'm not saying we will, but we're more likely to lose the House than the Senate, but the Senate is going to be difficult. We're going to have to work, But it must say we'll lose the House. We will get nothing done in the last two years.

18:39And President Trump is going to be in one impeachment proceeding after the other. I mean, his presidency and our ability to respond to the needs of the American people will both grind to a halt. And I don't want that. 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 be that he's kind of lost control of the of the asylum over there yes are any of them privately saying to you man we we wish that it hadn't gone this far left that you know maybe maybe we should be listening a little more to the fettermans and a little bit less to the ilhan omars let's say Sure.

19:23But they're scared. I mean, there are there are wings of the Democratic Party, just like their wings of the Republican. The Democratic Party has a loon wing. The problem is the size of the wing. And it's in the ascendancy. Yeah. 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. and they're in control and every Democrat is scared of them. Do you sympathize with Chuck ever? I mean, do you ever go, man, he lost control of these guys? I saw Chuck this morning. I rode in the elevator with him down to what we call our skiff where we have our classified briefings and we were just talking.

20:09We 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 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. She can't win.

20:59I don't know. I mean, look what just happened in New York City. Yeah, look what happened in New York City. Look at Congresswoman Crockett. Yeah. You just never know. No. And so everything, in my opinion, almost everything, I don't want to be unfair, that Senator Schumer is doing is to is to try to get the left, the loony left, the Bolshevik wing of his party to love him. And they will never love him. And they'll never love him. He's just better off doing what he thinks is right. When he worked with us not to shut down government back in March, he did the right thing. He got the living hell beat out of you by the people on his side.

21:46And since then, it's just clear by his, you got to watch what politicians do, not what they say. And I regret that, but I'm a pragmatist. I deal with the world as it is. And that's the world we live in in the United States Senate. Do you like the fact that your state, Louisiana, kind of flies under the radar? I mean, obviously, when I see you on network television, you're talking about national issues. So Louisiana, I would say, is in a kind of bucket with a few other states that we don't talk about that much. And my suspicion is that's probably pretty good. Well, sometimes. Probably means it's working.

22:24Sometimes out of sight, out of mind. Yeah. I sit on the appropriations committee. I never ask for a penny more than we need, but I never accept a penny less than we deserve. I take care of my state. What are the types of things that you have to fight for? Let me just say, I love Louisiana. I mean, I do.

22:51Texas gets a lot of great publicity. We're right next door to Texas. Texas is five and a half times bigger than Louisiana. We are ten and a half times more interested than they are. I mean, Louisiana is just a unique place, and I love it. But sometimes out of sight is out of mind. Petrochemical is very important to us. Offshore drilling is very important to us. Tourism in New Orleans is important. timber production, agriculture, aquaculture, shipbuilding, health care is important to us. And I try to work on all those things to help my state. We're doing much better in terms of education, which I worked on a lot when I was back in state government.

23:41So I'm gratified by that. But Louisiana is, you know, people say, what's Louisiana like? And I just tell them, you got to come experience it. It's like trying to explain the Holy Spirit. You know, you got to experience it. And they said, well, is the food good? And I said, well, sure. You know, we eat things that you would call an exterminator for to get out of your backyard. But we know how to cook them. Have you ever looked at the ingredients on a regular bag of chips? There's seed oils, MSG, artificial dyes, and natural flavors that don't sound like food at all. Masa is different. They're part of a movement to bring snacks back to real food, the kind our grandparents ate.

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25:00Or click the link in the description or scan the QR code to claim this offer. Not in the mood to order online? Masa and Vandy are now available nationwide at Sprout, so grab a couple bags next time you're there. Believe it or not, I have only driven through Louisiana, so I'm going to make a commitment on this. On this show. All right, all right. So I'm going to come, and do you cook? Does the wife, who's doing the cooking? I am the worst cook God ever put breath in. You see how I just invited myself to your house? Fortunately, Becky, my spouse, my wife, loves to cook. Okay. She has the patience for it.

25:33Okay. And she loves to it, loves it. But I'll tell you a quick story. Yeah. I'm not Cajun, but a big portion of southwest Louisiana in my state is Cajun. Of course. And two famous Cajun names for a woman is Marie and a man is Boudreaux. And I tell this joke all the time. If Adam and Eve had been named Boudreaux and Marie, they would have ignored the apple and eaten the snake. And the world would be without original sense. There you go. A little seasoning on that snake will do it. I'll tell you a great New Orleans story, even though I haven't been there. My last dog, who's no longer with us, was a rescue from Hurricane Katrina.

26:16Oh, God bless you, man. She gave birth during the hurricane. They found her in a box with three puppies that were nursing. The puppies were healthy. She was deathly ill. The hurricane, do you remember, was it August of 2005? I think that's right. She wasn't able to be adopted until June of 2006 because she was so ill. They moved the dogs across the country. I get her. She ends up living to 16 years old. We had to put her down right before COVID. But about a year before her death, she had bladder cancer. And I put a tweet up about her, telling her story from New Orleans and everything. And a girl reaches out to me.

26:52And she says, I have her son Bernard. And Bernard, they got saved at St. Bernard's Parish in New Orleans. And it turned out she lived only a few miles away from me. so emma my dog at 16 years old right before dying was reunited with her son bernard who was an old timer too 14 or 15 at that time and right before we had to put her down they got to to meet up again in los angeles you're breaking my heart think about that life that is awesome isn't that something i uh i spent a lot of my time during katrina katrina not only rescuing people but rescuing animals. And, uh, look, I would, I've got two pups at home.

27:33They're both rescues. I wouldn't ask Becky to choose between me and our pups. You just don't want to see which way that I mean, look, I, I, I think, um, I think God is great. Dogs are good and people are crazy. That's kind of my, my philosophy. What, what do you think when, when you wrap up your career that you want people to look back and say about you more than anything? I'm not saying you're going anywhere. I want people to look back and say, you know, Kennedy left something behind besides styrofoam. That, you know, he didn't win every fight, but he refused to be beaten. And that he did everything he could to every now and then, not every day, not every week, not every month, because it's hard.