GOP senator amid looming shutdown: Country ‘being run by idiots’

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) blasted Congress on Friday as a government funding deadline approached, slamming the government as being “run by idiots.”

“Our country was founded by geniuses, but it’s being run by idiots,” Kennedy told reporters hours before the government was set to enter a shutdown.

Another of Kennedy’s colleagues, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), made similar remarks on the Senate floor, saying that the Senate has “some really stupid people.”

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“This is the greatest country in the world, but we do have some really stupid people representing it from time to time, and with that, I probably have gone too far saying that, but it’s true and it’s disappointing to me,” Hatch said.

The two Republicans’ comments come as Congress barrels toward the first government shutdown since 2013.

House Republicans passed a short-term government spending bill Thursday, but Senate Democrats have vowed to block the bill when it comes up for a vote on the Senate floor.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) met with President Trump at the White House on Friday, but left the meeting without a deal to avert a shutdown, saying there are still a “good number of disagreements” with Trump on immigration and spending.

The Senate will take up a procedural vote on the House-passed spending bill Friday evening, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY.) is expected to fall short of the 60 votes necessary to pass the bill.