Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy had a deranged meltdown yesterday during a hearing of the Senate Budget Committee and verbally attacked a witness for daring to retweet a posting on social media in which Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) was called a “sick fuck” by climate protesters in March.
According to Mediaite, “Manchin was confronted by a group of climate activists at Harvard University, where one protester called him a ‘sick fuck’ before he was forcibly removed from the room. Supran retweeted a post by the organization responsible for disrupting Manchin’s visit at the university.”
The witness, Dr. Geoffrey Supran, Professor of Environmental Science & Policy and Director of Climate Accountability Lab at the University of Miami, told Kennedy, “Big oil is the new big tobacco. As a scholar of disinformation, I do not use the word lie’ lightly. But no other word adequately describes the oil industry’s brazen efforts to mislead the public about its history of misleading the public.”
Rather than engage Supran on the issue of climate change and public policy, Kennedy tried to pick a fight with him.
“Are you going to call me a sick fuck?”
Supran countered.
“This form of character assassination is characteristic of the kinds of propaganda techniques of the fossil fuel industry.”
Kennedy got his comeuppance on social media, where many noted that he is indeed a sick fuck.
Careful what questions you ask, Sen. Kennedy. You might not like the answers.
