Sen John Kennedy Urges Trump to Come to Washington to Negotiate Spending Bill: If He Wants a Spending Limit ‘We Need to Know What It Is’

Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) called on President-elect Donald Trump to come to Washington to negotiate the spending bill himself and let lawmakers “know what it is” because House Speaker Mike Johnson can’t round up Republicans “by himself.”

Johnson’s last-ditch attempt to fund the federal government through to mid-March with a proposed stopgap spending measure failed to gain traction on Wednesday, derailed in part by Trump and his close ally Elon Musk, who issued primary threats against Republicans who would choose to back it.

Appearing on Fox & Friends on Thursday, Kennedy called on the president-elect to come direct House Republicans, who he compared to “free range chickens”, and sounded a scathing indictment against Johnson.

I mean, it’s a multiple vehicle pile up. I knew as soon as I saw the bill there was going to be trouble. The thing was as big as a Costco and Speaker Johnson had to add a lot of spending porn to get the Democrats on board. This can be fixed. If I were king for a day, I’m not and I don’t aspire to be, but here’s what I’d do.

First, I would tell everybody to take their meds. Number two, I think President Trump is going to have to consider coming to Washington. I mean, let’s face it, he’s the president now. It’s not President Biden. President Trump needs to sit down with Mike Johnson and John Thune and come up with a new skinny CR. If the president wants to do something on the debt limit we need to find out what it is and put it in the bill. And then the president’s going to have to help Mike sell it in the House. Democrats in the House are not going to go along with it. Speaker Johnson’s problem is that on the Republican side he’s got a bunch of free range chickens. I’m not criticizing them, but they wander off and Mike can’t catch all of them by himself.

Host Lawrence Jones interrupted, asking if Johnson was fit to remain Speaker of the House. Kennedy ignored the question.

If I just finished my thought, he’s going to need the president’s help. Now, after it passes the House, it’s going to come to the Senate. The president’s going to have to sit down with John Thune and Chuck Schumer, and Chuck is going to come with a laundry list of spending porn. And President Trump is going to have to say no. And Schumer is going to say, ‘I’m going to blame it on you’ and President Trump is going say, ‘I’m going to fight to go get it done.’

Jones noted Kennedy’s point on process before repeating his question as to whether Johnson can “remain” if he “cannot control the House.” Kennedy responded by saying that only one person could control the Republican caucus – Trump.

There’s one person that can control the Republican caucus in the United States House of Representatives right now, and that’s Donald J. Trump. That’s my best assessment at this point.

Could that change? Sure. Yeah, but Speaker Johnson can not… It’s clear he hasn’t been able to do it. It’s not his fault. I mean, I’m not sure anybody could, but he can’t get all the Republicans together in the House. And in order to pass the CR, he’s got to do that without Democratic support. But I think President Trump could and I hope you’ll consider coming to Washington. Like I say, he’s the president, not Joe Biden.

Watch above on Fox & Friends.