Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards should immediately resign for failing to fulfill the oath of office of president of the United States, according to the junior U.S. senator from Louisiana.

Sen. John Kennedy claims Edwards has neglected to heed emphatic warnings from President Donald Trump’s director of National Intelligence regarding ongoing Russian efforts to interfere in future U.S. elections. By doing so, the Republican maintains, Edwards has left the nation’s most sacred institution in imminent peril, and therefore should step down, allowing Republican Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser to become governor.

“He is nothing short of derelict in his duty to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, as required in the presidential oath of office.”

“Governor Edwards has abdicated his solemn obligation to the American people to ensure our elections are free from influence by foreign aggressors,” Kennedy told a Shreveport radio station host. “He is nothing short of derelict in his duty to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, as required in the presidential oath of office.”

Kennedy was referring to DNI Dan Coats’ assertion that America’s “digital infrastructure … is literally under attack” and that “warning lights are blinking red again.” Coats compared current signs of an ongoing Russian attack on U.S. election systems with the intelligence gathered in the weeks before the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

“If Governor Edwards refuses to listen to Director Coats’ vigorous warnings of a legitimate threat, if he fails to take sufficient action to protect this nation from a potentially debilitating attack on the foundation of our republic, he needs to immediately remove himself from office and let Lieutenant Governor Nungesser fulfill the rest of his term,” Kennedy said.

When reporters on Capitol Hill caught up with Kennedy and asked him why he holds Edwards responsible for duties constitutionally allocated to the president of the United States, Kennedy simply shrugged his shoulders before gulping down an entire pint of Monsanto’s Roundup concentrate.