Kennedy on Susan Rice’s calls for political retribution: “I can’t think of a more irresponsible statement for somebody to make”

Watch Kennedy's comments here.

WASHINGTON - Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) today condemned Susan Rice, a former advisor to Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, for her recent remarks calling for political retribution against President Trump's supporters in a speech on the U.S. Senate floor.

Key excerpts of the speech are below.

"What Ms. Rice is talking about is payback. What Ms. Rice seems to be saying is, 'Two wrongs don't make it right, but they do make it even.' What Ms. Rice seems to be saying, and I don't know whether she's speaking on behalf of Netflix or not, but what Ms. Rice seems to be saying is that it's okay in America today to use the law to prosecute and harass your political enemies. I find that astounding, coming from a person of her stature.

"That's the sort of thing that doesn't happen in America. That's the sort of thing that is only supposed to happen in countries whose Powerball jackpot is 287 chickens and a goat. Not America. We believe in the rule of law. We believe in equal protection. We believe nobody is above the law, but nobody's beneath it. I can't think of a more irresponsible statement for somebody to make."

. . .

"And I know some are going to say, well, President Trump is doing the same thing. If that's true, I don't like that either. In fact, when many of President Trump's nominees for the Justice Department came and appeared before us for confirmation in the Judiciary [Committee], on which I sat, I talked to him about this. I said, 'Two wrongs don't make a right, but they do make it even,' is wrong.

"It was wrong then, when President Biden did it. It's wrong now if people are doing it. And it's going to be wrong if Ms. Rice gets back in government. And it is wrong for her to say this, especially if she's doing it on behalf of Netflix, a great American company. You can only be young once, but, man, oh, man, you can always be immature."

Background

• Rice, who currently sits on the board of Netflix, recently appeared on the podcast "Stay Tuned with Preet Bharara." During the interview, Rice told Bharara that "it is not going to end well" for American businesses that "bend the knee" to the Trump administration.

• Rice later added, "There is likely to be a swing in the other direction, and they are going to be caught with more than their pants down. . . . They're going to be held accountable by those who come in opposition to Trump and win at the ballot box. . . . If these corporations think that Democrats, when they come back in power, are going to play by the old rules, and say, 'Never mind, we will forgive you for all the people you fired and all the policies and principles you violated, all the laws you skirted,' I think they got another thing coming."

Watch Kennedy's speech here.