“I’ve never been a Marxist!” the Louisiana senator shouted angrily after his attempt to smear one of Biden’s judicial nominees backfired.

“I’ve never been a Marxist!” the Louisiana senator shouted angrily after his attempt to smear one of Biden’s judicial nominees backfired.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) on Thursday tried to smear one of President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees by repeatedly calling her a Marxist, an accusation rooted in nothing other than this nominee being a Democrat.

But his effort backfired spectacularly when the Louisiana Republican was reminded that he, too, used to be a Democrat.

“Are you still a Marxist?” Kennedy asked Melissa DuBose, Biden’s nominee for a U.S. district court in Rhode Island. It was his very first question in DuBose’s nomination hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and he gave zero context.

“I am not nor have I ever been a Marxist,” replied DuBose, who is now a state district judge.

They went back and forth. Kennedy suggested she was lying under oath about being a secret Marxist, citing an interview she did in 2000 when she was working at a coffee shop and said she was “in my Marxist phase.”

…

And then Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) reminded Kennedy that even if it were true that DuBose had been in a “Marxist phase,” people sometimes take new positions on issues over time. Even him.

“This was many, many, many, many, many years ago,” Whitehouse said of DuBose’s interview. “Perhaps during the time when my colleague Sen. Kennedy was a Democrat, showing that people can change their views, even if it were true that you were in a Marxist phase.”

Whitehouse smiled. Laughs were audible in the room. Kennedy was furious.

“I’ve never been a Marxist!” he shouted. “I’ve never been a Marxist! And I’ve never admitted I was a Marxist and then not turned a document over to this committee!”

  • marx2k@lemmy.world
    91·
    9 months ago

    Do republican voters seriously never grow tired or embarrassed by this clown show? I don’t get it

    • Mycatiskai@lemmy.ca
      33·
      9 months ago

      They only hear good things from their side, if they heard something bad coming out of a Republican it would sound like a Charlie Brown trombone adults.

      • marx2k@lemmy.world
        4·
        9 months ago

        I really just don’t get it. The arguments from the right aren’t even convincing or remotely logical half the time. At this point it just feels like the politicians are treating their constituents like they’re morons and they may be right since the voters not only keep voting them back in but defend these politicians like they’re literally fighting the forces of darkness on their behalf.

        wtf happened to the American right??

  • maniacal_gaff@lemmy.world
    33·
    9 months ago

    Not only did he change parties, his cartoonishly ridiculous accent showed up out of nowhere. Go listen to him speak before the figured out he could get more votes as an ®.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
    31·
    9 months ago

    This guy has literally coasted through election after election purely because ignorant people associate his name with JFK’s. So sure, he can claim he was never a “Marxist” when someone reminds him he used to be a Democrat because his constituents don’t remember anyway.

  • escapedgoat@lemmy.worldEnglish
    31·
    9 months ago

    I think it’s only fair that from now on every interviewer of Sen. Kennedy ask him how long he’s secretly been a Marxist.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
      14·
      9 months ago

      Just like they should repeatedly ask Trump if he’s ever paid for any abortions.

      If only the press had balls.

  • Pratai@lemmy.ca
    728·
    9 months ago

    The only thing I’ll ever have in common with that clown is that I’d be embarrassed to be called a Marxist also.

      • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.de
        24·
        9 months ago

        Disclaimer: I don’t really know. But the ideology has not been practiced by the man himself, who is said to never have stepped foot in a factory. That is enough of a taint on that word so I cannot blame anyone for willing to disassociate themselves from it. And communism failed in our country so hard that the only Communist Party voters left are the ones who just blame “the system” for everything and don’t care if the trending anti-establishment movement is far-right or far-left, they just look forward to the end of democracy so that they can be the first ones to pick up what remains.