GOP's Kennedy compares dire Trump tariff predictions to 'late-night psychic hotlines'

While senators Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., cited economists' projections that President Donald Trump's tariffs will cost American families an extra $5,000 per year, GOP Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., insisted, "We don't know," suggesting those who claim they do are making fools of themselves. 

"I followed what all these economists are saying. Most of them make these late-night psychic hotlines look respectable," Kennedy told Fox News Digital at the Capitol. "They don't know any more than anybody else. We're in uncharted waters here."

"When the average American family sits down and tries to figure out how they're going to pay for things, and they hear they may pay $5,000 more than they've had to pay before - and they may not be able to buy a new car, they may not be able to support that new drug that grandma needs, they may not be able to take that vacation they were planning for a year - they're going to be outraged," Schumer told reporters. 

"It's a huge tax on American families. All - all - to help billionaires get a tax cut."

Luján seconded the sentiment from Schumer, pointing to the economists that Kennedy blasted as less respectable than a "late-night psychic hotline." 

Kennedy argued such projections had no basis in fact.