Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) seemed to forget that “on the record” rules apply no matter voice volume when he whispered his opinion on former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s viability for one of the now-open DHS slots.

“Don’t go there,” he hissed to a Kansas City Star reporter on his way into a Senate vote. ‘We can’t confirm him.”

“I never said that to you,” Roberts added hastily.

Amid the many vacancies left by President Donald Trump’s purge of the department, Kobach’s name has been floated as a possible replacement for ousted DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen or maybe nixed ICE chief nominee Ronald Vitiello. However, the general thinking seems to be that Kobach has no chance of getting through a Senate confirmation process.