Politics

Watch The Look On Mayorkas’ Face When John Kennedy Interrupts His Testimony With A Shoulder Pat And Handshake

Department of Homeland Secrete Alejandro Mayorkas looked stunned on Wednesday after Republican Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy surprised him during a hearing. [Screenshot Twitter Town Hall]

[Screenshot Twitter Town Hall]

Brianna Lyman News and Commentary Writer
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Department of Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas looked stunned on Wednesday after Republican Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy surprised him during a hearing.

Mayorkas was testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee when mid-testimony Sen. Kennedy patted him on the right shoulder, walked behind him and went in for a handshake.

Mayorkas immediately jumped at the first pat on the back before being overcome with confusion as he searched around to see who laid a hand on him. Mayorkas then cracked a smile after he realized it was Kennedy. (RELATED: ‘You Should Be Fired’: Sen. Cornyn Grills Mayorkas Over Fentanyl Crisis At Southern Border)

Kennedy later grilled Mayorkas, asking him to define an assault weapon after Mayorkas called to ban them.

“I am not an expert with respect to the definition of the assault bans,” Mayorkas said.

“I defer to the experts, I defer to, for example, the definition of an assault weapon that was codified in the prior iteration of the legislation that was passed and that was in operation when I served as an assistant United States attorney and the United States Attorney in the Central District of California,” Mayorkas testified.

His testimony on guns came just days after 28-year-old transgender Audrey Hale shot up a Christian elementary school in Nashville.

“So you would support the prior definition?” Kennedy asked.

“Senator, I must defer to the experts with respect to the definition, but I will tell you for example, military style weapons are of tremendous concern, we are seeing too much devastation,” Mayorkas said before Kennedy then grilled him on what he means by “military-style weapon.”

“I really must say that you are probing a very, very important area definitionally in which I do not have the requisite expertise. I will say this, when we see, when we see the tragedy in Nashville, and it is not the first such tragedy that we see … I say that we need legislation to ban them.”