Soundbite savant Sen. John Kennedy clarified that he didn’t suffer a stroke or catch a sexually transmitted disease when he dramatically froze up mid-sentence live on air Tuesday during a Fox Business hit.
The one-liner whiz fired back at lefty critics for speculating he suffered a medical scare after what looked like troubling footage of the 73-year-old growing stonefaced went viral on social media.
“Yesterday I was on your show. I enjoyed it. I was just yapping away, and all of a sudden, my earpiece blew up. This one — it sounded like a 747 was taking off,” Kennedy told host Larry Kudlow on Wednesday, motioning to his earpiece.
“Man, my ears are still ringing. Anyway, so I just, assumed we were off air. I just stopped talking, and I didn’t start talking again until I could hear you.”
A day prior, Kennedy had been discussing the Trump administration’s crackdown on sanctuary cities, when suddenly he trailed off mid-sentence before staring blankly off to the side.
“Jesus loves them, but everybody else thinks …” the Louisiana senator riffed before mumbling quietly.
“Everybody else thinks,” he repeated, then turned blankly with his mouth agape.
Kudlow then interjected at the time after several seconds of Kennedy looking blankly into the camera and cut him off, claiming there were “technical problems.”
“That was the same mic we lost with Sen. Rand Paul,” Kudlow added. Paul (R-Ky.) had done an interview on his program before Kennedy and, at one point, complained mid-interview about losing his connection to the program.
The Louisiana Republican later returned to the air Tuesday, about half a minute after the incident and was still mired by technical issues and trouble hearing Kudlow.
Kudlow seemed to corroborate Kennedy’s claim that there was a technical issue, stressing “I think that’s all that happened” and “a lot of people are making conclusions about your health that they had no business making.”
“I don’t know, some of the rags up here have they’ve got all kind of stories that I had a brain freeze live on TV or a stroke or caught an STD live on television or something?” Kennedy quipped about the media speculation after the incident.
“I’m OK, I’m here. I’m back here today. I’m full of piss and vinegar.”
When questioned about the incident, Kennedy’s office sent a statement to The Post from the senator explaining “there was a malfunction in my earpiece.
“I heard a loud screeching noise with a lot of static.”
Before the clarification, speculation quickly swirled about Kennedy, and some observers drew comparisons to Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) repeated freeze-ups in the public eye.
McConnell’s team later chalked up the health scares to a concussion he suffered from a fall in March 2023. The former leader of the Senate GOP later announced that he would not be seeking reelection in 2026.
Concerns about the health and vitality of lawmakers have been elevated over recent months. This year alone, three House Democrats died from illnesses or old age.
Democrats in particular have been forced to reckon with former President Joe Biden’s mental acuity amid a string of new revelations about the 82-year-old’s condition.
