Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) appeared to trash Trump over charges that were recently dropped against the accused reflecting pool vandal, David Hearn, during a Sunday appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press.
Kennedy suggested Trump has grown “anxious” and that he may not really believe Hearn committed a crime, while defending Jeanine Pirro’s decision to drop the charges.
Over a dozen people have been arrested or cited for their suspected role in the vandalism, but the most notable arrest was that of former Olympian David Hearn.
A DC grand jury returned an indictment of three-time Olympic canoeist David Hearn for his alleged vandalism of the reflecting pool last month. Hearn faced up to ten years in prison after a grand jury in the DC Superior Court returned the indictment.
When he was arrested in June, local independent journalist Emily Miller appeared to catch his arrest on camera. She shared the clip on X, alleging he tried to impede workers cleaning the pool and “grabbed the hose that female National Park Service workers were using to clear the algae.” It is unclear if this claim was presented to the grand jury that returned an indictment.
However, as The Gateway Pundit reported, the Justice Department on Friday dropped the charges against Hearn. US Attorney Jeanine Pirro, who previously accused Hearn of “violently and forcefully” ripping up the sealant, claimed on Friday that “flawed installation by the contractor” was responsible for the damage.
Trump lashed out at Pirro on Saturday morning, slamming her for dismissing the case.
Trump went on to share a four-minute-long surveillance video of alleged vandals writing on Truth Social, “Look for yourselves at the VANDALISM that took place at The Reflecting Pool. The material is being cut with a knife or a box cutter, for all to see!” Previously, the US Park Police shared part of this footage and requested help from the public in identifying the suspect as part of a destruction of government property investigation.
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Asked about the David Hearn case and whether the reversal could “undercut the public’s faith in the Justice Department,” Senator Kennedy described the case as a “multiple vehicle pileup,” suggesting President Trump is being dishonest.
“Let me start with the president. The president says it was caused by vandals. I don’t know whether he really believes that, or it’s part of his political messaging, or he’s just thinking out loud,” he said.
“You and I both know the president well. He exists loudly, and he grows anxious when he has an unexpressed thought. I’m not saying he doesn’t really believe it. I just don’t know.”
On Pirro, he noted that the stakes are higher in a court of law and suggested that she would need to lie in order to secure a conviction. “You can’t lie to a federal judge. If she can’t prove her case, she was right to pull back because if you fool around with a federal judge, you will find out,” he said.
He then suggested that there was never any evidence against Hearn, saying, “I don’t know why she filed the suit without having without doing a full investigation. She says she relied on the Department of Interior, but she was smart to pull it back.”
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