Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) has served the state of Louisiana in the Senate since 2017, beginning his career in that legislative body at about the same time President-elect Donald Trump began his career as an elected official after winning the 2016 presidential election and being inaugurated in January 2017.
Kennedy, a lawyer, Rhodes Scholar and former Democrat who switched parties in 2007, has been a stalwart Trump supporter throughout Trump’s political run, and has participated eagerly in Trump’s condemnation of what MAGA adherents commonly categorize as the “liberal media.”
vRepublicans are proudly pushing Russian propaganda.
— David Rothschild(@DavMicRot) December 2, 2019
This week in the wake of the New Year’s Eve terrorist attack in New Orleans that killed more than a dozen innocent bystanders, Kennedy made a joke at a press conference. When told NBC News was positioned on “the right,” the Senator replied it was an “unusual position” — presumably referencing his belief that mainstream media is always on the left instead.
When confronted — “I don’t get it,” a reporter said — Kennedy replied “you wouldn’t,” sneering at the media trying to report to the public on the terrorist attack.
The jocular tone Kennedy took, given the gravity of the situation, was called out by some as unnerving. “If my constituents had just been slaughtered in a terrorist attack,” wrote the attorney and former Obama appointee Eric Columbus, “I wouldn’t be cracking jokes for the cameras but that’s just me.”
Another commenter wrote: “Is anyone else as appalled as I am at Sen. Kennedy’s demeanor as others spoke?”
Question: You said you were confident there were multiple suspects involved, what makes you confident? pic.twitter.com/amN2ygxeVH
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 1, 2025
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