Republican senator: Mexico 'would be eating cat food' without the United States
United States Senator John Kennedy (R-Louisiana) insulted the population of Mexico while grilling Drug Enforcement Agency Administrator Anne Milgram during a Wednesday Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on fentanyl.
Kennedy, like many on the right, has advocated for deploying the American Armed Forces to neutralize the cartels — a point that he viciously emphasized to Milgram.
"If [Mexican] President Andrés Manuel López Obrador invited the American military and or law enforcement personnel to come into Mexico and work with his, we could stop the cartels, couldn't we?" Kennedy asked.
"I believe, Senator, that we can stop the cartels," Milgram replied.
"Okay. Have you made that suggestion to President [Joe] Biden?" Kennedy wondered.
"If I could, I believe that we can stop the cartels by..." Milgram attempted to respond.
"Have you made that suggestion to President Biden?" Kennedy growled.
"Senator, I have been very vocal in the whole of government setting on the importance of fentanyl and all of us using every single effort and authority that we..." Milgram said before Kennedy again cut her off.
"Why hasn't President Biden done it? I mean, this is the way the American people whose sons and daughters are dying. Look at it. Our economy is $23 trillion. Mexico's economy is 1.3 trillion. Ours is eighteen times bigger. We buy $400 billion every year from Mexico," Kennedy griped.
"Without the people of America, Mexico, figuratively speaking, would be eating cat food out of a can and living in a tent behind an Outback," the senator seethed. "So why don't you and the president embarrassing no one, get on the phone and 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. Why don't you do that?"
Milgram replied that "What I am doing every single day is working with the incredible men and women of DEA who are risking their lives."