Folksy John Kennedy gets serious pushback on Ukraine mess

Source: Politico | December 3, 2019 | Marianne Levine and Burgess Everett

The Louisiana Republican has pushed a discredited theory that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election.

Sen. John Kennedy has long been known as a folksy, straight shooter on Capitol Hill. But now his legacy may be something else altogether: The guy who spread a debunked conspiracy theory about Ukraine.

As the House moves forward with its impeachment inquiry, President Donald Trump’s staunch allies have attempted to shift the focus to Ukraine. And Kennedy has emerged as the most prominent senator in this process, making Sunday show appearances that have perplexed his Senate colleagues by offering some level of equivalency between Russian and Ukrainian influence in 2016.

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The controversy surrounding Kennedy’s remarks began when he suggested in an interview on Fox News last month that Ukraine could have been responsible for hacking the Democratic National Committee’s emails in 2016, a discredited conspiracy theory. Kennedy later walked back his comments, saying he misheard the question. But this past weekend, Kennedy reiterated his opinion when he said on “Meet the Press,” saying “both Russia and Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election.”

Kennedy, a former Democrat who endorsed John Kerry for president,often takes questions from reporters, huddling for 10 minutes or more, delivering colorful lines like comparing John McCain to a “boiled owl” or describing a spending bill as a “Great Dane-sized whiz down the leg” of taxpayers. But on Tuesday he appeared to finally have grown tired of talking.

“I gave two press conferences yesterday. I’ve done two interviews today. I’ve said all I want to say,” Kennedy said in an interview. “I believe what I believe. I showed everybody the articles. And reasonable people disagree sometimes.”

While Kennedy’s comments earned him a shout-out from Trump on Twitter Monday, lawmakers have only raised more questions. One Senate Republican, summing up the mood in the conference, put it this way: “I watched it on Meet the Press and I was like: Huh?

“I don’t know what he’s saying. I don’t know if he’s purposefully confusing the issue. I know he’s defending the president and that’s part of what he’s doing,” the senator said.

The Louisiana Republican’s plunge into the world of Trump-backed conspiracy theories stands in stark contrast to previous situations as he’s toed a less partisan line.

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Senate Republicans have largely accepted reports from intelligence officials that Russia interfered in 2016. Kennedy also endorses that view. But his contention that Ukrainian’s preference for Hillary Clinton amounted to election interference is now cleaving what was once a consensus on Capitol Hill.

Those who disagree include senior State Department officials, who reiterated Tuesday to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that there is no proof that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election. The No. 3 State Department official, David Hale, told senators that he’s seen “no credible evidence about these allegations of Ukraine.”

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