Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said President Trump called him after his grilling of a nominee to a U.S. district court last week and told him to continue pressing nominees sent over by the White House who are unqualified.
“The president and I get along fine, and he has told me, ‘Kennedy, when some of my guys send somebody over there who’s not qualified, you do your job,’” Kennedy told WWLTV in an interview Monday. “I said, ‘Thank you, Mr. President,’ and I intend to do that.”
Kennedy grilled Matthew Petersen, Trump’s nominee to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, during his confirmation hearing last week in an exchange that has since been viewed more than 8 million times. Petersen, a commissioner on the Federal Election Commission, struggled to answer questions about numerous legal principles during the five-minute-long exchange and said he has never tried a case in civil or criminal court, or federal or state court.
MUST WATCH: Republican @SenJohnKennedy asks one of @realDonaldTrump’s US District Judge nominees basic questions of law & he can’t answer a single one. Hoo-boy. pic.twitter.com/fphQx2o1rc— Sheldon Whitehouse (@SenWhitehouse) December 15, 2017
Kennedy told WWLTV that Trump called him over the weekend to discuss Petersen’s nomination, and said it’s the White House staff who interviews judicial nominees, not the president.
The Louisiana senator also said he was unaware of Petersen’s inexperience before his confirmation hearing.
“Mr. Petersen is a really smart guy. I read his background check by the FBI and he’s a decent guy,” he said. “But just because you’ve seen ‘My Cousin Vinny’ doesn’t qualify you to be a federal judge, and he has no litigation experience, and my job on the Judiciary Committee is to catch him.”
