A sitting Republican senator went on national television Sunday morning and told the world that the Trump administration is 'kissing Putin's ass' and getting nothing for it. He also said inflation is 'gutting people like a fish,' that the Iran war probably won't end before the midterms, and that his own Republican leadership had five months to fix things and simply chose not to. Other than that, great party.
The Putin Problem, As Described by a Republican
Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana does not appear to have received the memo about staying on message. Appearing on NBC News' Meet the Press Sunday, Kennedy looked straight into the camera and described Vladimir Putin as 'a pirate' with 'blood under his fingernails' who 'doesn't care about a bunch of pretty talk.' So far so good. Then came the line.
'You don't get any credit for kissing his ass. You've got to show him you mean business.' That is a direct quote from a United States senator describing his own administration's approach to a foreign adversary. Kennedy said this while Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff were literally on the ground meeting with Putin in Russia and Zelenskyy in Kyiv over the same weekend.
Kennedy's prescription was blunt: pass the Russian sanctions bill the Senate already approved in August but which the House killed last week, send Ukraine more intelligence support, and stop treating diplomatic softness as a virtue. 'We got Putin down. We're choking him to death,' he said. 'That's what he understands.' Whether or not you agree with that assessment, it is a remarkable thing to say publicly about the sitting president's foreign policy while that foreign policy is actively in motion.
The Iran War Is Going Great, Except for the Part Where Gas Is Expensive
Kennedy also weighed in on the U.S. military conflict with Iran, which, yes, is an ongoing thing happening right now. His verdict was mixed in a way only a politician could deliver with a straight face. 'We have accomplished all of our objectives in Iran,' he told Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker. 'There's just one problem: the Strait is semi-closed.'
The Strait of Hormuz. One of the most critical oil shipping lanes on the planet. Semi-closed. Because of a U.S. military blockade that Kennedy simultaneously praised and flagged as a source of ongoing pain at the pump for ordinary Americans. 'The blockade was a smart play. It's hurting the Iranians badly,' he said, before adding that he thinks they should leave it on 'for a few more months if we can stand the pain at the pump.'
So the plan is: yes, gas is expensive, yes it's our fault, yes we think this is still the right call, and no, the war will 'probably not' be over before the November midterm elections. Kennedy said that part out loud too. Points for honesty. Fewer points for everything else.
'Gutting People Like a Fish'
On inflation, Kennedy was somehow even more candid. He described the economy as 'solid' and pointed to low unemployment, which is the kind of thing you say when you know a 'but' is coming. The 'but' arrived immediately. Inflation, he said, is 'gutting people like a fish. It's pernicious. And we've had it for a few years now.'
Here is where it gets genuinely remarkable. Kennedy did not blame Biden, though he mentioned that inflation has been 'up and down since President Biden's administration.' He blamed his own party. Specifically, Senate Republican leadership. 'The Senate Republicans, about five months ago, for a reconciliation bill, we should have addressed it. We didn't,' he said, before explaining why: he couldn't get the majority leader to bring such a bill to the floor, and they were probably three or four votes short anyway.
When Welker asked if Republicans have enough time to address inflation before the midterms, Kennedy acknowledged they technically have the procedural tools to act, then immediately cast doubt on whether they would. 'I'm not saying we will do that, certainly based on our record the last five or six months,' he said. 'It's not likely.' This is the Republican senator from Louisiana, on Meet the Press, one week before midterm campaign season kicks into full gear, telling voters not to expect much.
What Kennedy Is Actually Doing Here
Kennedy has always been something of a wild card, a guy who occasionally makes sense and occasionally makes you want to check whether his statements were generated by a random word machine. But Sunday's performance was unusually coherent and unusually damning, precisely because it came from inside the house.
This is not a Democrat saying the Trump administration is being naive about Putin. This is not a liberal critic saying inflation is crushing working people. This is John Kennedy, Republican, Louisiana, saying all of it himself. Which either means he is genuinely alarmed about where things are heading, or he is positioning himself carefully ahead of an election cycle where the economy and foreign policy are both live grenades. Or both. Politicians are good at both.
The Dingo Take
You are supposed to believe that the Republican Party is a united front, that any cracks you see are minor and cosmetic, that the MAGA coalition is disciplined and on-message. John Kennedy just went on national television and described his own administration's Russia diplomacy as butt-kissing, called inflation a fish-gutting catastrophe his own party failed to address, admitted the Iran war won't wrap up before the midterms, and predicted Senate Republicans probably won't bother using the legislative tools they have to help anyone. That is not a crack. That is a load-bearing wall collapsing.
The specific details here matter. The House killed a Russia sanctions bill the Senate had already passed. Senate Republicans had five months and a reconciliation vehicle to tackle inflation and punted. The Strait of Hormuz is semi-closed and gas prices are elevated as a direct result of a military action the administration is still defending. These are not spin problems or messaging failures. They are policy outcomes, and a member of the president's own party just catalogued them on a Sunday morning news program like a prosecutor reading charges.
Kennedy will probably be fine. He's from Louisiana, he's not up for reelection anytime soon, and he has made a comfortable career out of saying outrageous things and then voting with the party anyway. But every Republican running in a competitive district this November just had an opposition researcher's morning made for them, free of charge, courtesy of the senator from the great state of Louisiana.
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