Sen. Kennedy says Trump likes daily strikes on Iran: ‘Sometimes you have to kill a few chickens to scare the monkeys’

Administration Sen. Kennedy says Trump likes daily strikes on Iran: ‘Sometimes you have to kill a few chickens to scare the monkeys’ Comments: by Ryan Mancini - 07/26/26 2:45 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Ryan Mancini - 07/26/26 2:45 PM ET Comments: Link copied

NOW PLAYING

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) on Sunday said President Trump likes the daily strikes on Iran, which paused going into the weekend after nearly two straight weeks of attacks on Iranian infrastructure.

“I think we ought to continue the blockade and starve them out,” Kennedy said on CBS News’s “Face the Nation” with Margaret Brennan. “I think we ought to bomb Pickaxe Mountain and try to reach what’s underneath it … The president likes the daily attacks.”

“He believes that sometimes you have to kill a few chickens to scare the monkeys,” Kennedy added.

Kennedy compared Iran’s leaders to American serial killer Son of Sam and cult leader Charles Manson, calling them “more than mildly insane.” But he added that the U.S. should not “just cut and run.”

“If we can stand the pain of the rising cost of energy, we need to stay the course,” he said. “At least for a few more months. I also don’t think we need to send in troops. That’s my opinion, for what it’s worth.”

The U.S. and Iran resumed hostilities earlier this month, effectively ditching an interim peace deal that would have led to alleviating high gas prices and lifting sanctions. The war has consistently polled poorly since the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Feb. 28, with the conflict risking Republican turnout during the fall midterm elections.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who has been more critical of the war’s objective and the administration’s messaging on the conflict, said Sunday that it “seems unlikely” the war will end soon.

“At this point, I do think there needs to be a fuller national discussion as to how we go forward,” Cassidy said on CNN. “If the president wraps this up quickly — it seems unlikely — but they seem to reassure that it can happen. OK, that’s fine.”

Cassidy insisted that Congress will “need to trigger that conversation” about the war’s future and its goals.

Both countries have remained open to continuing talks, though the administration has downplayed continuing negotiations. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday that Trump’s new policy toward Iran is “a head for an eye” after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran’s policy is an “eye for an eye.”

On Sunday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei dismissed a path toward peace.

“Today, as the nations of the world have grown weary of the tyranny and oppression of the US government and the criminal Zionists, who are the destroyers of lives and generations, there remains no path forward except jihad and resistance,” he wrote on the social platform X.