GOP Senator Faces Backlash for ‘Tone-Deaf’ Comment
During a press conference following the tragic New Year’s Day terror attack in New Orleans, Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-La.) made a sharp comment aimed at a news outlet, drawing widespread backlash from journalists, pundits, and fellow officials.
According to The Daily Beast, the moment unfolded when reporters were taking turns asking questions. An NBC News journalist was introduced as being “on the right,” to which Kennedy quipped, “That’s an unusual position for them.”
The remark seemed to fly over the reporter’s head, who responded with a puzzled, “I don’t get it.” “You wouldn’t,” Kennedy responded.
Former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann didn’t mince words when he took aim at Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, tweeting: “Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana is a useless piece of s— saying all the wrong things at the wrong time for all the wrong reasons. What a tone-deaf, selfish, senile motherf—er.”
Louisiana Public Service Commissioner Davante Lewis also joined the criticism, slamming Kennedy’s behavior as “unacceptable and deplorable.”
In a fiery tweet, Lewis urged the senator to reconsider his priorities: “For once, can you put the people of Louisiana over your media obsession? That press conference wasn’t the time or place for your jackass jokes.”
The backlash came in the wake of a tragic terror attack in New Orleans’ French Quarter. A 42-year-old American-born U.S. military veteran carried out the attack on Bourbon Street, leaving 14 people dead and dozens more injured. The assailant was later killed in a shootout with police.
“If my constituents had just been slaughtered in a terrorist attack I wouldn’t be cracking jokes for the cameras but that’s just me,” former Obama administration official Eric Columbus posted to X.
“This man is a thorough disgrace to the office he holds,” tweeted scientist and author Michael E. Mann. “He should resign immediately.”