GOP senator: Price’s charter flights ‘indefensible’

Republican Sen. John Kennedy (La.) ripped Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price on Thursday for traveling on private jets at taxpayer expense, calling the actions “indefensible.”

“No excuses here, can’t put lipstick on this pig. It’s a pig,” Kennedy said on Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom.”

“Tom shouldn’t have done this. Whether he stays on is between him and President Trump. Taking these charter flights, playing the big shot on the taxpayer’s dime when you can go by bus or train or regular commercial air, can’t put lipstick on this pig.”

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Kennedy declined to call for Price’s firing, saying “that’s not my call.”

“That’s up to him and the president,” Kennedy said. “If you’re asking me if I think it’s wrong? It’s dead wrong. It’s more than wrong. Don’t defend this. It’s indefensible.”

Price told reporters Thursday while leaving an event promoting the flu vaccine in Washington, D.C., that “we’re going to work through this, and I think we’ve still got the confidence of the president.”

His comments came a day after Trump knocked Price’s flights while declining to say whether he’d fire him over the growing scandal, saying “we’ll see.”

“I am not happy about it,” Trump said Wednesday. “I’m going to look at it. I am not happy about it, and I let him know it.”

Pressure on Price is growing after Politico ran a string of stories about him using expensive private jets for official travel.