Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana joined me this morning to discuss the “comprehensive immigration negotiations” and the general mood in the country:

Audio:

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Transcript:

HH: I’m joined now by United States Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana. Good morning, Senator Kennedy. Good to see you. Happy New Year.

JK: Thank you, Hugh. Hope you’re well, mate.

HH: I am. I hope you are, too. I want to, I don’t like to surprise people I’m of the opinion that if the United States Senate brings forward a so-called compromise on the border that does not have a very tall wall over 800 miles and an expanded border patrol, it’s dead on arrival in the House, and it will be the fourth time in my 23 years on the air that I’ve reported on a Republican compromise that cratered. What do you think?

JK: Well, you could be right. I mean, so far, I don’t know. I’m like everybody else in the Senate, except about three or four people. I don’t know what’s going on. I’m pretty disgusted. So far, it’s the whole process in the Senate has been a multiple vehicle pileup. I’ve asked, I don’t know, four or five times what are the negotiators negotiating, what have they agreed on, what are they still disagreeing on? Every time, I’m told that they can’t tell me. If they did, they’d have to kill me. I mean, I’m not, the two gentlemen who are negotiating the deal are both fine people and all of that, but Senator Murphy, who’s negotiating for the Democrats, I can’t imagine Senator Murphy every agreeing to something that would secure the border. He’s entitled to his opinion, but my experience with him is that he’s happy with the way things are. And the House has been…

HH: You know, Senator, I want to give you a little background.

JK: The House has been…sure.

HH: I love Senator Lankford, and I know Senator Tillis, and they’re both good and smart guys. I would trust them normally. But I knew John Cornyn very well when he started this. I knew Jon Kyl extremely well when he started this. I knew Marco Rubio well when they started this. I had the same warning. You have no idea what the base thinks about this until we see it and read it. And I’m a wet. I’m an easy compromise guy. Let everybody stay who’s not a criminal, but secure the border. And I’m not going to support anything, and it will be dead on arrival. And you know, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. If you negotiate something in secret and it doesn’t have the wall in it, it’s done.

JK: Well, Hugh, I can’t, I can’t disagree with your point of view. I’m just, I’m dealing here from, I guess you could say, ignorance in the sense that I have no idea what they’re talking about. I mean, and I don’t think any other senator with the possible exception of Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer really know what’s going on. I don’t know that Mike Johnson in the House or any of my House colleagues know. We’ve been doing this for two months, and every time I’ve asked, I’ve asked at least five times, can you tell me the details. And every time, I’m told we cannot tell you. If we told you, we’d have to kill you, and put you on double secret probation. It’s top secret. And I’m thinking okay, you’ve got one vote. I’ve got one vote.

HH: Do you agree with my premise, though? Do you agree with my premise…

JK: I think that…

HH: …that you cannot surprise…

JK: Well, I think it’s going to be…

HH: You can’t surprise the Republican base. You have to put it out there and let us chew on it. We support the Senate majority. I support Leader McConnell. I want you guys to get to 51. But you can’t surprise me or the people that listen to this show with something that doesn’t look like it will be effective in stopping 8 million people coming across the border in 3 years.

JK: No, I agree with that. But so far, we don’t have anything to surprise you with. And once they reach an agreement, if they reach an agreement, there’ll be plenty of time. I can assure you all of the senators who have been excluded, which is most of us, are going to go over this thing very, very carefully. So people will have plenty of time to see what’s in it. But Hugh, we’re not there, yet. I mean, so far, the whole thing has been a goat rodeo. And I don’t believe that the White House…

HH: Well, it is a goat rodeo. You know, the, did you ever go to Disneyland, Senator?

JK: I’ve been one time. That’s all I could afford.

HH: (laughing) Did you go on the Jungle Cruise?

JK: I think my son did, and he went through all six of the gift shops that you have go through when you get off.

HH: Well, the Jungle Cruise does not change. It’s the same thing. It’s like Pirates of the Caribbean. The rides do not change. We’re on the same ride.

JK: Right.

HH: And I just know at the end, you’re going to get all the stuffed toys, and you’re going to go through the gift shops, and you’re going to say that was the same ride I did the last…this is the same ride.

JK: Well, you may end up being right. Again, I can’t answer you, Hugh, because I might, right now, I might as well be one of the guys living under the interstate, as much as I know. I know as much as they know, okay? And we’re coming back on Monday, and I don’t know any of my colleagues, except probably James and Chris and Mitch and Chuck who know what the hell’s going on. I don’t think the House knows what’s going on. I mean, look, when we start…

HH: Well, Senator…are we going to keep the government open in three weeks? Do you know if that’s going to go on?

JK: Well, I want to keep it open. I don’t think there’s anything to be gained by shutting down government.

HH: Good.

JK: Now how we’re going to keep it open? We’re not going to pass a budget bill between now and the drop-dead date. I can tell you that. That’s not going to happen in your or my natural lifetime. So we’d better start thinking about either a CR or something. But again…

HH: Are we going to…

JK: I’m not driving…

HH: Are we going to…

JK: I’m not driving this clown car, okay?

HH: Are we going to send a message from the Senate to the President that he has to start protecting American troops on ships in the Middle East and that he can’t allow us to be targets for the Houthis to keep trying to kill American sailors? I mean, this upsets me quite a lot, and I’m wondering if you expect the United States Senate to give some guidance to the President about protecting our troops?

JK: Well, so far, of course, we have. Are they listening? No. So far, this administration has acted like a hopeless knave in terms of understanding that weakness invites the wolves. Iran is shooting missiles at the ships, and the Biden administration is quoting Socrates to them. I mean, that’s just not the way the world works.

HH: No, it’s not. My last question for you, Senator, has to do with Claudine Gay. And your staff asked if I was going to bring anything up except immigration, and I said no. But we don’t, we both don’t know what’s going on, so I’m going to leave it at that. I learned this morning that the president of Harvard, and I’m a Harvard grad, all right? So you’re a UVA grad, as I recall, and we know what…

JK: I’m sorry, Hugh.

HH: We both know what plagiarism is, right? We both know what plagiarism is.

JK: Yeah.

HH: And so she has resigned, because I don’t know if she did it, but it sure looks like it, because she resigned. She’s going to get paid $900,000 dollars next year by Harvard. What does the average American think about that, in your opinion in Louisiana, Senator Kennedy?

JK: I think that the average American, the average Louisianan looks at the situation at Harvard, and they are, it triggers their gag reflex. Here, you had this extraordinary research university that over the last 25 or 30 years has been diminished, undermined, gutted, now it is, it’s a farce. And if I were a member of the Harvard faculty or alumnus, and I cared about my university, I wouldn’t give them a dime until they started to become a university again instead of a woke factory.

HH: They have a $50 billion dollars endowment which is not taxed.

JK: Yeah.

HH: There are some members of your body that want to tax endowments of universities. Are you among them?

JK: Yeah, I’d look carefully at the bill. I mean, I’m not saying yes, I’ll vote for it, Hugh, because I haven’t read the bill, yet. And I don’t think Senator Schumer will bring it to the floor, frankly. But we’ve got to do something to get their attention to get these universities to go back to being universities instead of just factories that espouse I hate America. That’s the way I see it.

HH: Well, you know, I graduated in ’78, and we had a very diverse group of people, and I had professors from both sides of the aisle, and people from all over the country, middle-class kids with good scores could go there, and they weren’t legacy admits. I don’t know what happened to that place. Senator Kennedy, let me conclude by talking about 2024. Donald Trump has got extraordinary momentum. And I think it’s built on the people who voted for him in 2016 being angry at the country having become fundamentally unfair on many different things – Jack Smith’s prosecution, Hunter Biden not prosecuted, Joe Biden’s family making a million dollars, 8 million people walking into the country. Do you think that unfairness is combining into the existing Trump base to give him his force?

JK: Yeah, and I think the loon wing of the Democratic Party, Hugh, always makes the same mistake. They think that the American people are stupid. People in this country notice when their justice system is being politicized. And what it looks like from the loon wing of the Democratic Party is that they’re trying to steal the election in plain sight.

HH: Oh, I’m glad you brought that up.

JK: Throwing people off ballots…

HH: Your colleague, Chris Coons, a friend of mine, he’s a very smart lawyer. You’re a very smart lawyer.

JK: Yeah.

HH: I’ve taught Constitutional Law since 1996. The idea that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment is self-executing and the Maine Secretary of State can throw Trump off the ballot, that is an idiotic point of view. And the Colorado Supreme Court will be reversed. Do you agree with me on that?

JK: I think the Supreme Court will reverse, because there’s been no due process. You can’t throw somebody off a ballot, I don’t care who they are, without due process. And that’s all they’re doing, and that’s what it look, the optics are terrible for the Democrats, and I think it makes the Republicans and President Trump stronger.

HH: How can Chris Coons, he’s a wonderful guy, he’s been a guest on my show many times…

JK: Yeah.

HH: For a Democrat, he’s a wonderful guy. How in the world can he say it is obviously true that Colorado can take him off the ballot? It is obviously not.

JK: Well, you know, Chris is a good guy. He’s a friend of mine. We just don’t agree, and he’s got to toe the party line. And he’s close to President Biden. And you know, right now, the American people wouldn’t trust President Biden to open a can of Pringles. I mean, that’s how low his numbers are. And Chris is going to do everything he can to prop up his friend. I get that. That’s politics. But all I’m saying is you’re not going to fool, you’re not going to fool the American people.

HH: I agree.

JK: They may not read Socrates every day, but they get it. Sooner or later, they get it. They’re busy earning a living, but they get it, and they’ve got it. And that’s why President Biden’s poll numbers are on a journey to the center of the Earth.

HH: And they’re not going to get better. Senator John Kennedy, it’s always a pleasure to talk to you, Cavalier or not. It’s good to talk to you. Thank you, Senator. You have a great 2024.

JK: Thanks, Hugh.