Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., pushed back Sunday on President Donald Trump’s expressed interest in sending U.S. citizens who commit crimes to prisons abroad.
Asked on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” if he believes the law allows Trump to send domestic criminals to foreign prisons, Kennedy said, “No, Ma’am,” adding: “We have our own laws. We have the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution. We shouldn’t send prisoners to foreign countries, in my judgment.”
His remarks come after Trump told Fox News on Tuesday that his administration is “looking into” the possibility of sending what he called “homegrown criminals” to foreign prisons.
“I call them homegrown criminals. I mean the home — the homegrown ones, the ones that grew up and something went wrong,” Trump said, adding: “We are looking into it and we want to do it. I would love to do that.”
Kennedy also spoke to moderator Kristen Welker about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who the Trump administration admits was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, even as it alleges that Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang. (Abrego Garcia’s wife and attorneys deny the allegation.)
Deporting Abrego Garcia “was a screw-up,” Kennedy told Welker, but added that he wasn’t concerned about the administration doing anything similar in the future.
“I don’t see any pattern here. I’ve been listening to my Democratic friends say for, I don’t know, since God was a child, that Trump is a threat to democracy. I don’t see any pattern here. I see a screw-up,” Kennedy said.
The GOP senator, who made headlines earlier this year with his remarks about the need for Trump administration officials to follow court orders, told Welker that he doesn’t believe the administration is ignoring federal judicial rulings in this case. Democrats, who point to judicial decisions that ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S., are alleging the contrary.
“I don’t believe that President Trump will defy a federal judge’s order. If he does, I’ll call him out on it,” Kennedy told Welker, adding: “I love the rule of law. I love it like the devil loves sin.”
Kennedy also spoke about Trump’s comments this week about Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, included the president’s remarks that he is “not happy” with Powell and that the chair’s termination “cannot come soon enough.”
Federal Reserve chairs are typically appointed by presidents and confirmed by the Senate to serve four-year terms, boosting their independence from the current administration in power.
Powell was first nominated by Trump during his first term, in 2017, and he was nominated to serve a second term by then-President Joe Biden in 2022.
“I don’t think the president, any president, has the right to remove the Federal Reserve chairman,” Kennedy told Welker. “I think the Federal Reserve ought to be independent.”
The senator also offered some advice to the two men following a week of Trump lobbing barbs at Powell, saying, “I think that Jay Powell and President Trump need to sit down and, once again, have a hug and a cup of hot cocoa and work it out.”
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