Sen. John Kennedy also said former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is “lucky he wasn’t prosecuted” for perjury and repeatedly lying to his fellow FBI agents. | Zach Gibson/Getty Images Legal Kennedy: McCabe and FBI should ‘hang their head in shame’

Sen. John N. Kennedy on Sunday told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is partly to blame for tarnishing the agency’s reputation.

“Mr. McCabe is one of the people responsible for politicizing the premier law enforcement agency in the history of the world, the FBI,” Kennedy (R-La.) told CBS’ Margaret Brennan.


“He’s not the only one, but it’s clear that he and others in 2016 — some were for Trump, some more for Clinton — but they acted on their political beliefs and they hurt the FBI badly for that — all of them. … We should hang their head in shame and hang their head, put their head in the bag.”

Kennedy added that although officials are just as entitled to their opinions as anyone else, they should not be permitted to act on them or give the impression that they acted on them — which, Kennedy said, is what McCabe did at the FBI.

The senator also said that McCabe is “lucky he wasn’t prosecuted” for perjury and repeatedly lying to his fellow FBI agents.

“Now if you and I do that, we go to jail,” Kennedy said. “And [McCabe], he just got fired. He was lucky.”