{"id":223415,"date":"2026-09-07T22:24:45","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T22:24:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/sen-john-kennedy-criticizes-the-trump-administrations-approach-to-putin-amid-latest-peace-talks-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T22:24:45","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T22:24:45","slug":"sen-john-kennedy-criticizes-the-trump-administrations-approach-to-putin-amid-latest-peace-talks-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/sen-john-kennedy-criticizes-the-trump-administrations-approach-to-putin-amid-latest-peace-talks-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Sen. John Kennedy criticizes the Trump administration\u2019s approach to Putin amid latest peace talks – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., criticized Republican leadership on a number of issues including the Trump administration\u2019s handling of the Ukraine peace process and Senate leaders\u2019 response to inflation woes.
Kennedy told NBC News\u2019 \u201cMeet the Press\u201d on Sunday he believes the Trump administration should take a different approach to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
\u201cThis guy\u2019s a pirate. He\u2019s got blood under his fingernails. He doesn\u2019t care about a bunch of pretty talk,\u201d Kennedy said Sunday, as U.S. envoys meet with leaders on both sides of the conflict. \u201cYou don\u2019t get any credit for kissing his ass. You\u2019ve got to show him you mean business.\u201d
Last week, the House failed to pass<\/a> a Russian sanctions bill that the Senate approved<\/a> in August.
\u201cWe should have passed that Russian sanctions bill, and we\u2019ve got another chance to do it,\u201d the Louisiana senator said. \u201cThen we ought to help Ukraine and help Europe. They\u2019re doing OK on their own, but we can provide them intelligence.\u201d
Kennedy\u2019s comments come as President Donald Trump\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner and the president\u2019s special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Putin in Russia<\/a> and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv this weekend<\/a>.
\u201cWe got Putin down. We\u2019re choking him to death. We\u2019re choking him. We\u2019ve got to choke him to death. That\u2019s what he understands,\u201d the senator added. \u201cI\u2019m not putting down any of the talk, and I think talk is good and it can be helpful. But I won\u2019t faint with surprise if our guys don\u2019t come out of there without a deal.\u201d
Kennedy also weighed in on the ongoing military conflict with Iran, telling \u201cMeet the Press\u201d moderator Kristen Welker that the war will \u201cprobably not\u201d end before the upcoming midterm elections.
Still, he praised the Trump administration\u2019s decision to launch the military conflict, telling Welker: \u201cWe have accomplished all of our objectives in Iran. … There\u2019s just one problem: the Strait [of Hormuz] is semi-closed.\u201d
The senator said that with the strait still blockaded by the U.S. military, gas prices in the U.S. likely won\u2019t drop soon.
\u201cThe blockade was a smart play. It\u2019s hurting the Iranians badly. It\u2019s hurting the government,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cI think we ought to leave it on for a few more months if we can stand the pain at the pump.\u201d
Kennedy on Sunday also expressed doubt that Republicans in Congress would be able to do anything to lower costs or tackle inflation before November\u2019s midterm elections, lightly criticizing his own leadership for not dealing with the issue sooner.
He described the economy as \u201csolid\u201d and pointed to \u201clow\u201d unemployment numbers but said inflation is \u201ca big if.\u201d
\u201cIt\u2019s gutting people like a fish. Inflation is pernicious. And we\u2019ve had it for a few years now. It\u2019s been up and down since President Biden\u2019s administration,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cWhat we ought to do is something about it. I\u2019m not blaming it on the president or the House. The Senate Republicans, about five months ago, for a reconciliation bill, we should have addressed it. We didn\u2019t for a couple reasons. Number one, I couldn\u2019t convince the majority leader to put a bill like that on the floor. And number two, we\u2019re probably three or four votes short.\u201d
Asked whether Republicans have enough time to address inflation before the midterm elections, Kennedy said, \u201cWe can do anything we want to in reconciliation and ask the House to come back and do it.\u201d
Kennedy highlighted a procedural move Senate Republicans could use to pass some legislation without support from Senate Democrats but cast doubt on whether they would. \u201cI\u2019m not saying we will do that, certainly based on our record the last five or six months. It\u2019s not likely.\u201d
Alexandra Marquez is a politics reporter for NBC News.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeSen. John Kennedy, R-La., criticized Republican leadership on a number of issues including the Trump administration\u2019s handling of the Ukraine peace process and Senate leaders\u2019 response to inflation woes.Kennedy told NBC News\u2019 \u201cMeet the Press\u201d on Sunday he believes the Trump administration should take a different approach […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":223416,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}