Well, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is not having a good week. Earlier this week, he got raked over the coals by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) over the border crisis.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) also got a turn with Mayorkas and, as he’s been known to do, asked the secretary a few simple questions that someone in his position ought to be able to answer.
“Mr. Secretary yesterday you testified in judiciary that you support an assault weapon ban and we didn’t have much time to talk about that. Tell me your definition — once more — of an assault weapon,” the senator asked.
Easy, right? When someone says he wants to ban assault weapons, it stands to reason that he should know what an assault weapon is. Mayorkas would prove in his responses that he has absolutely no idea.
“I am not an expert, with respect to the definition of the assault bans, and so I defer to —”
“You are the Secretary of Homeland Security,” Kennedy reminded him, clearly suggesting that he ought to know the answer.
“as — as I was about to say, 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.”
“So you would support the prior definition ?”
“Senator, I must defer to the experts with respect to the definition,” Mayorkas said again, before really stepping in it. “But I will tell you, for example, military — military-style weapons are of tremendous concern. ”
“You personally think we should ban assault weapons, and I know you to be an intelligent man and a thinking person, so I know you’ve thought about it,” Kennedy responded. “What do you mean by military-style weapon?”
Spoiler alert: Mayorkas didn’t know the definition of “military-style weapon,” either.
“Senator, I really must — must say that you are probing a very, very important area definitionally, in which I do not have the requisite expertise,” Mayorkas admitted before invoking the Nashville school shooting on Monday, essentially saying that even though he has no idea what he’s talking about, we need to do something.
“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, when I engage with my international counterparts,” Mayorkas said. “And they ask me, almost invariably first, what is going on with all the mass killings in the United States? And why are these assault weapons disseminated so broadly, I say that we need legislation.”
Of course, Sen. Kennedy, being who he is, wasn’t about to let him off easy.
“So you support an assault weapon ban, but you don’t have a definition. Is that right?”
Though he again tried to deflect the question, the bottom line is that Kennedy summed it up neatly. And the worst part is that Kennedy had previously asked him to define what an assault weapon is on Tuesday, and he didn’t do his homework before facing Kennedy again Wednesday.
Yesterday, Sen. @JohnKennedyLA asked Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas if he could give the definition of assault weapons he wants to ban. He couldn't give a definition.@JohnKennedyLA asked Mayorkas again today, and he still couldn't. pic.twitter.com/Nfic7kj6CB
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 29, 2023
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