Sen. John Kennedy’s Viral ‘Freeze’ on Fox Was Tech Glitch, Not Neurological Malady

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) found his name in scores of headlines and social media posts because of a video clip claiming that he had suffered a “freeze” or “health scare” on live television during an appearance on Fox Business Tuesday, but a longer video shows the problem was a technical glitch that also affected Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) during a segment earlier in the same show.

At issue is Kennedy’s interview with Larry Kudlow on the Tuesday afternoon episode of Kudlow on Fox Business. Below is the full clip with context.

Kennedy and Kudlow were discussing the immigration debate and the Louisiana senator was criticizing sanctuary cities when he had technical difficulties. A transcript of the conversation:

KENNEDY: I’m not saying states don’t have rights, but clearly we have some sanctuary cities and mayors and councils there that are just intentionally refusing to follow federal law. And that’s wrong. I’m not saying they’re bad people. I’m sure Jesus loves them. But everybody else thinks, everybody else —

KUDLOW: I guess we had some more technical problems. That was the same mic as we lost with Senator Rand Paul. Awful sorry to hear that because everybody respects what Senator John Kennedy has to say. You know, I was just going to ask him as a follow-up, by the way, it’s not a question so much of liking, it’s this — oh, if he can hear me, that’d be great, and respond. No bail, no jail. These cities have no bail —

KENNEDY: I was just going to say, I can’t really hear you, Larry, but I was just going to say in terms of these mayors, I’m not saying they’re bad people. I’m sure Jesus loves them, but everybody else thinks they’re idiots. If you’re a mayor, you can’t refuse to follow federal law. They’re breaking the law, and we’re going to have to do something about it.

KUDLOW: And I think — I don’t know if you can hear me —

KENNEDY: And I can’t hear a word you’re saying.

KUDLOW: All right. It’s good to see you, Senator Kennedy. We’re going to do this again soon. I’m sorry we’ve got technical problems. We’ve got a couple of things we wanted to raise with you including no bail and no jail, including former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg spending $80 billion on DEI in the Transportation Department instead of upgrading equipment. Anyway, Senator John Kennedy, thank you, sir. We’ll get you back soon enough.

As Kudlow mentioned, he had a similar tech problem in the segment immediately before Kennedy when he interviewed Paul.

In this clip, the Fox Business host criticized the Federal Reserve as being “like one big, central planning squid or something” and then got several seconds of silence when it was Paul’s turn to respond, and he said the connection had been lost. A transcript of the conversation:

PAUL: So, uh, Larry, we lost our —

KUDLOW: Oops, did you not hear —

PAUL: We lost our connection, but I’m just going to say I completely disagree with everything you said —

KUDLOW: Okay —

PAUL: — but I didn’t hear the question because we lost, electronically, your question. But I will say this, the Fed, we’ve got to do something about it. I don’t think replacing Powell’s enough. I think really we need to reform the entire system.

KUDLOW: All right. Well, I’m with you on retire the system, whether connected or not. Senator Rand Paul, thanks for coming back on, as always.

“In just a few moments, we’re going to talk with Senator John Kennedy,” Kudlow said as he went to the commercial break. “I hope we have better luck with the technology.”

Unfortunately for Kennedy, they did not have better luck with the technology, and some reporters and social media users ran with it.

“GOP Senator, 73, Freezes During Fox Business Interview,” read the headline on a Tuesday article by a breaking new intern at The Daily Beast. The article included a video clip from Kudlow Tuesday that was only 24 seconds long; most clips shared on social media were a similarly abbreviated length.

The Beast shared the link on social media with captions that said Kennedy “had a frightening freeze-up” and “froze…seemingly due to a health scare.”

 

The Daily Beast article asserted that Kennedy was responding to a question from Kudlow when he started an answer “before murmuring a couple more words and then freezing on camera” and then “trailing off into a seven-second silence,” describing the next few moments on television, and the response from the senator’s office, as follows:

Kennedy appeared to be unable to form words, and he remained on screen for five more seconds in silence before Kudlow cut in and chalked up the awkward gap to a technical issue.

“I guess we had some more technical problems. That was the same mic we lost with Senator Rand Paul,” Kudlow said. Kennedy had not spoken any words after freezing up.

A spokesperson for the Louisiana Republican did not respond to an immediate request for comment. The day after publication, a spokesman for Kennedy said that it was not a “health episode” but a “broadcast audio issue on Fox Business’s part.” They also pointed to Kudlow ending the interview after the freeze by saying, “Well anyway, it is good to see you Senator Kennedy, we’re gonna do this again soon. I’m sorry we had technical problems, we had a couple other things we wanted to raise with you.”

The article did include Kudlow’s comments that there were “technical problems” and it was the “same mic” that caused problems for Paul, but the article is still labeled near the top “GERONTOCRACY” and describes Kennedy as a “Septuagenarian Senator” with the very first two words.

“The sight of a gray-haired senator freezing during an interview is a familiar one for the GOP caucus,” reads the Beast article several paragraphs later, describing incidents involving Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and other older senators.

As of early evening Wednesday, these comments were still in the Beast article (archived version saved here) and tweets were still up. Other social media users shared the article link or video clip Tuesday evening and throughout the day Wednesday suggesting that Kennedy had “frozen” or otherwise suffered a health problem live on air.

Reached for comment, a spokesperson for Kennedy provided the following statement to Mediaite from the senator:

The Daily Beast is wrong. Yesterday, during my interview with Larry Kudlow on Fox Business, there was a malfunction in my earpiece. I heard a loud screeching noise with a lot of static. It sounded like a 747 taking off. The same thing happened with Rand Paul, who was interviewed before me. I stopped talking until the interference cleared up, and thought we were off the air. Once I could hear Kudlow, I started talking again. All you have to do to get the facts is call Kudlow’s producer, which the Daily Beast intern clearly didn’t do.

Kennedy had no hard feelings for the Kudlow crew, and returned to his show Wednesday afternoon, where the Fox Business host thanked his “great friend” for returning and kicked off the segment by saying that he wanted to “clear the air about yesterday and the interrupted interview.”

“As I understand it, what happened was your IFB, your wire broke down, and you had a lot of noise in your ear, and you had to stop talking because you couldn’t get anything through,” said Kudlow.

An “IFB” refers to the “interruptible foldback” or “interrupted foldback” system that operates to allow monitoring and communications for live television, radio, and podcast hits so producers and directors can give cues and instructions to on-air talent during the broadcast. For example, a news anchor might be signaled when to introduce the next segment or a guest might be told there are only 15 seconds left before the show will cut to commercial. The term IFB is interchangeably used to refer to the earpieces on which the system operates and the system itself.

“Now, if there’s something different there, you tell us, but I think that’s all that happened,” Kudlow continued. “A lot of people are making conclusions about your health that they have no business making, sir.”

Kennedy agreed and said that he had “enjoyed” being on the show on Tuesday.

“I was just yapping away, and all of a sudden my earpiece blew up, this one,” he said, pointing to his right ear, and explaining what happened with his typical colorful remarks:

It sounded like a 747 was taking off. Man, my ears are still ringing. Anyway, so I just — I assumed we were off the air. I just stopped talking, and I didn’t start talking again until I could hear you.

And I don’t know, some of the rags up here have, they’ve got all kind of stories, that I had a brain freeze live on TV or a stroke or caught an STD live on television or something, I don’t know. I know this’ll come as a shock to you, Larry, but not everybody in Washington likes me. And so when they can see an opportunity to try to start a rumor, they do.

That’s what happened. But anyway, I’m okay. I’m here, I’m back here today. I’m full of piss and vinegar, and I’ll be glad to answer your questions.

“Well, yes, sir, 100%, that’s why we want to get you back for –” said Kudlow.

Kennedy replied by offering to “do an old man back flip to show you that I’m okay.”

Kudlow chuckled and replied that was “not necessary.”

“I would just say not everyone watching likes me either, and imagine doing this for a living,” said Kudlow. “This IFB is in my ear all the time, and sometimes it just doesn’t work.”

Fox did not respond to a request for comment.

Watch the clips above via Fox Business.