Republican Sen. John Neely Kennedy (La.) admitted that the Trump administration had made a mistake by wrongfully deporting a Maryland man to El Salvador last month.
The politician had lots of excuses for why Kilmar Abrego Garcia didn’t deserve to come home, but he did tell NBC News’ Kristen Welker that the whole situation was “a screwup” during Sunday’s episode of “Meet the Press.”
While Kennedy had a whole list of reasons why Abrego Garcia is “never coming back to the United States,” the senator said his expulsion to El Salvador was an error, albeit a one-off.
“Look, this was a screwup, in my opinion,” he said.
“The administration won’t admit it, but this was a screwup,” Kennedy continued. “Mr. Garcia was not supposed to be sent to El Salvador. He was sent to El Salvador.”
But the Southern senator continued to defend the Trump administration, telling Welker that Abrego Garcia’s wrongful deportation did not show the president is intent on flouting the rule of law.
“The Democrats say, ‘Look, you know, we told you, Trump is a threat to democracy. This is going to happen every other Thursday afternoon.’ I don’t see any pattern here,” he said. “I mean, you know, some day pigs may fly, but I doubt it.”
After simultaneously conceding to the “screwup” and justifying the Trump administration’s actions, Sen. Kennedy then claimed that the government would eventually heed a unanimous Supreme Court decision ordering it to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return.
“I don’t believe that President Trump will defy a federal judge’s order,” Kennedy later added. “If he does, I’ll call him out on it.”
“I love the rule of law. I love it like the devil loves sin,” the famously folksy Kennedy continued, adding, “I think if we start not following federal judicial orders, we undermine the system entirely.”
The Trump administration has rationalized its failure to act with a novel interpretation of the Supreme Courts’ ruling, arguing that only El Salvador has the power to release Abrego Garcia and that “facilitating” his return would only mean providing an airplane to get him back to the United States.