John Kennedy Shares Extremely Blunt Take On Trump Tariffs Moments Before They're Unveiled

2 days ago

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill.

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Transcript

00:00What are you waiting to film?

00:22How you doing?

00:24Looking good man.

00:26How you feeling about the tariffs?

00:28About what?

00:29I don't know. I don't know what they're going to do yet.

00:36I understand where... I got to do this quick.

00:39I got to go quick.

00:41I understand where the President's coming from.

00:44America's the wealthiest country in all of human history.

00:49Our people like to buy stuff.

00:50The President's saying if you're a business in a foreign country

00:53and you want to sell to America, move your business here and hire Americans.

00:57And in the long run he's right.

00:59But as I've said repeatedly, in the long run we're all dead.

01:03Short run matters too.

01:05Nobody knows what the impact of these tariffs is going to be on the economy.

01:09I've heard experts, economists say it'll be positive.

01:16I've heard other economists in Washington say it'll lead to the apocalypse.

01:23My experience with economists in Washington is that for every economist

01:28there's an equal and opposite economist.

01:30And they're both usually wrong.

01:33And a lot of them make those late night psychic hotlines on TV look respectable.

01:41The truth is we just do not know.

01:47Best case scenario.

01:50Works beautifully.

01:53Invites and indeed results in huge foreign investment in the United States.

02:00The economy booms.

02:03And we all get to retire early.

02:07I know, I'm coming.

02:09Worst case scenario.

02:12Causes inflation, which means the Federal Reserve raises interest rates,

02:18which means that businesses slow down, which means that businesses lay off people,

02:23which leads to a slowing economy and a recession.

02:30We don't know.

02:31Nobody knows.

02:33We've never had tariffs of this size in modern history.

02:39I mean, I'm obviously pulling for the positive.

02:44But we're in uncharted waters.

02:47Senator, do you take anything away from last night's election results?

02:50Do I what?

02:51Do you take anything away from last night's election results?

02:53I thought it was all fairly predictable.

02:57Republicans won in Florida, as you would expect.

03:01Wisconsin was predictably close.

03:05People don't realize that Wisconsin is probably the country's most purple state.

03:11You just never tell how it's going to go.

03:14I saw a lot of Democratic enthusiasm,

03:19which is to be expected after the beating they took in the last round of elections.

03:27What about Elon Musk?

03:29I know some people want to get all hot and bothered about what happened,

03:34but I thought it was pretty normal, frankly.

03:36What about Elon Musk's role in Wisconsin?

03:38He played a big role there.

03:40I don't know.

03:41I just have to look at the turnout numbers and see who voted and see who didn't.

03:47Mr. Musk has a right to his opinion.

03:50I'm glad that he's voicing it.

03:53I'm glad he's on my side.

03:55He's a formidable advocate, and I'd like to see more people weigh in.

04:02Thank you, Senator.

John Kennedy Shares Extremely Blunt Take On Trump Tariffs Moments Before They're Unveiled

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