Sen. John Kennedy, Louisiana Republican, said Thursday that President Biden has gone “full wokerista” after the White House bemoaned “police violence” following the shooting of a knife-wielding Black teenage girl.
“What President Biden has done is immeasurably reckless and foolish. He’s gone full wokerista,” Mr. Kennedy said on Fox’s “The Faulkner Focus.” “He has joined those people who believe that America was wicked in its origins and that the American people are even more wicked today.”
“Wokerista,” a word evidently created by Mr. Kennedy, appears to combine “woke” with “Sandinista,” the Nicaraguan Marxist revolutionary party.
“That we have millions of Americans who are racist and misogynistic and ignorant, especially if they didn’t vote for him,” he continued. “And the wokeristas who Mr. Biden has joined have contempt for America, they should have gratitude, and I am very, very disappointed in President Biden.”
His comment came after he was asked about White House press secretary Jen Psaki’s response Wednesday to the shooting death of 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant, who was killed by an officer as she attacked another Black teenage girl with a knife in Columbus, Ohio.
“We know that police violence disproportionately impacts Black and Latino people in communities, and that Black women and girls, like Black men and boys, experience higher rates of police violence,” Ms. Psaki told reporters.
Mr. Kennedy weighed in with a general criticism about Mr. Biden’s leftward tilt, saying that the president has “got to stop it. He’s encouraging this radical thinking that America is bad. The American people are not perfect, but they’re good.”
He added: “I knew he would be left of center. I didn’t know he’d be left of Lenin. And he knows better. He knows better.”
No fair-minded person believes cops get up every morning & go to work hoping for the opportunity to hurt someone. That’s nonsense.
— John Kennedy (@SenJohnKennedy) April 22, 2021
But the wokeristas really do hate cops & want to defund the police, which will result in an unbelievable impression of hell in our communities. pic.twitter.com/8ILh7yWxh1
The shooting spurred an outcry from those who called the shooting an example of race-based police aggression, while others said the officer was acting to protect the other Black girl and may have saved her life.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is conducting an independent probe into the shooting, and the officer has been placed on administrative lead.
Mr. Kennedy advised the president to “lead, don’t just follow and do what the wokeristas tell you to do.”
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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