Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) said he doesn’t completely trust Qatar as an ally following President Donald Trump‘s visit to the Middle Eastern country.
“American foreign policy is an enduring struggle between values and interests. We know American values, freedom, the rule of law, personal responsibility, merit, and equal opportunity, but not all countries, most countries, don’t share those values. Take Qatar, for example, they don’t share any of those values,” Kennedy said Thursday on Fox Business’s Varney & Co. “Do I trust Qatar? Of course not. They will eat your liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.”
Kennedy was referencing the movie Silence of the Lambs, in which the main character, Hannibal Lecter, describes eating a human liver with fava beans and a glass of Chianti.
However, while in Saudi Arabia on Monday, Trump lauded the Middle East for its “great transformation” in recent years, saying, “I don’t like permanent enemies.”
TOM COTTON ADVISES TRUMP TO ADDRESS CONCERNS WITH LESS ‘RELIABLE ALLY’ QATAR
Kennedy echoed the sentiment.
“Does that mean I want to be enemies with Qatar? No. Why? Because you don’t have to be MENSA material to see that the world is in the midst of this grand struggle between the United States and other countries that share our values in China, Russia, and Iran, and Xi is the mastermind,” he said. “… We need all the friends we can get in that fight.”
