Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy went on a racist tirade against Mexicans this week and demanded the Biden administration engage in mafia-style tactics to force the Mexican government to allow an invasion of its country by the United States military and law enforcement agents to fight drug cartels.
His comments enraged Mexican officials who have condemned Kennedy and even gone so far as to openly urge Latinos in the U.S. to not vote for Republicans as a result.
Kennedy unleashed his racist rant during a Senate hearing on the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration’s budget Wednesday. In comments to DEA Administrator Anne Milgram, Kennedy derisively argued that without the U.S. the people of Mexico “would be eating cat food out of a can and living in a tent behind an Outback.”
More than 37.2 million Americans — more than 10% of the total population — are of Mexican descent, according to the Pew Research Center.
Kennedy then went on to demand that Milgram and President Joe Biden engage in mafia style tactics to force Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to essentially cede his nation's sovereignty.
“Call President López Obrador and make him a deal he can't refuse to allow our military and our law enforcement officials to go into Mexico and work with his to stop the cartels,” he said.
Kennedy made his comments in his signature faux Southern drawl. Although the accent is widely considered to be an affectation designed to give off a bit of folksy “charm,” it often ends up sounding more like an Englishman doing a bad impersonation of Foghorn Leghorn, rather than an average Louisianan.
Which makes some sense: Kennedy has a law degree from Oxford. As in, Oxford in the United Kingdom, not Mississippi — though Kennedy was born in that state. He also has degrees from Vanderbilt and the University of Virginia. According to Open Secrets, in 2016 his estimated net worth was $12.14 million, making him among the wealthiest members of the well-heeled U.S. Senate.
Predictably, his comments didn’t sit well with Mexican officials. Mexico’s Secretary of Foreign Affairs Marcelo Ebrard condemned Kennedy, arguing that “what is behind these ideas and those who promote them … racism against Mexicans, and in general all Spanish-speakers,” according to the Daily Mail.
The newspaper also reported that Mexico’s President also weighed in, saying “tell our countrymen, Hispanics, our American friends, not to vote for people with this very arrogant, very offensive and very foolish mentality."
Meanwhile in related news, the Republican-controlled Louisiana House Thursday passed a bill to make some criminal records public for juveniles as young as 13, regardless of whether they are guilty of the crime — and only if they live in Orleans, East Baton Rouge and Caddo parishes. Those parishes are, of course, home to three of the state's largest Black populations.