Daniel Wolfram
A Republican Senator from Lousiana went on Meet the Press to try and explain why President Donald Trump refused to agree with the US attorney dropping vandalism charges.
To celebrate the United States’ 250th anniversary, US President Donald Trump announced that Washington’s Reflecting Pool would be cleaned after years of neglect, and the bottom would be painted “American Flag Blue.”
But soon after the renovations, problems started to occur with the color peeling and fading.
President Donald Trump blamed vandals without any clear evidence, but now a senior lawmaker has offered a candid explanation for why Trump’s official assessments do not always align with physical evidence.
Unfiltered thoughts
Senator John Kennedy weighed in on a growing dispute over recent damage at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
“The president says it was caused by vandals. I don’t know if he really believes that or it’s part of his political messaging or he’s just thinking out loud,” Kennedy mused to host Kristen Welker on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
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He did not stop there with his assessment of the president’s thought process. “He grows anxious when he has an unexpressed thought,” the senator went on.
Charges dropped quickly
The Republican Senator from Louisiana was responding to a sudden turn of events inside the Department of Justice. Federal authorities had initially blamed a former US Olympian for damaging the iconic pool.
Olympian rower David Hearn was charged with vandalism offenses that carried a potential ten-year prison sentence. The legal action followed claims that deliberate destruction had ruined the landmark.
However, federal prosecutors rapidly changed course after reviewing internal documents from the Interior Department and conducting a thorough physical inspection of the monument site. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro filed paperwork to drop the case entirely.
“Given all of this newly discovered information, it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt,” Pirro wrote in court documents moving to formally dismiss the case.
Standing his ground
Despite the clear findings of his own federal law enforcement team, Donald Trump refused to abandon his original claim.
Without providing any evidence or documentation, the president took to Truth Social, writing he “100%” disagreed with the decision to dismiss the criminal charges.
Meanwhile, defense attorneys representing the now-cleared Olympian expressed lingering anger over the entire saga. They noted that dropping the indictment could not “erase the abuse of government power in arresting and charging a patriotic American who did nothing wrong.”
Hearn’s legal team added that federal agencies acted without checking the facts first. “The government’s approach was ready, fire, aim,” they said, adding that the administration owes Hearn an apology.
