### SENATE SHOWDOWN ERUPTS — ADAM SCHIFF’S PLAN TO OUTSMART SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY BLOWS UP ON LIVE TV!

**By Tucker Carlson, Fox News Chief Political Correspondent**
**November 13, 2025 | Updated 2:30 PM ET**

**EXCLUSIVE: ADAM SCHIFF’S SENATE AMBUSH ON KENNEDY BACKFIRES IN EPIC HUMILIATION — LOUISIANA LION RIPS APART ‘GRAND STRATEGY’ WITH RAZOR WIT, LEAVING D.C. DEMS REELING AND VIRAL CLIP IGNITING MAGA FIRESTORM!**

Get ready, America — Washington just witnessed one of the most humiliating political moments in years, a Senate floor fiasco where Adam Schiff’s slick “grand strategy” to corner Senator John Kennedy imploded like a bad sequel to his Russiagate flop. (28 words)

Schiff strutted in with charts and quips, aiming to paint Kennedy as a border-obsessed dinosaur, but in minutes, the California schemer was left sputtering as Kennedy’s folksy filleting turned the chamber into a comedy of errors. (27 words)

No mercy, no recovery — just stunned silence and social media mayhem as reporters replayed the roast that stopped D.C. cold. One debate, one devastating line, and Schiff’s ego never saw the punchline coming.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Senate, that august arena of filibusters and feigned civility, transformed into a verbal coliseum Thursday afternoon when California Democrat Senator Adam Schiff – the silver-tongued inquisitor of two Trump impeachments – launched what he billed as a “grand strategy” to outflank Louisiana Republican Senator John Neely Kennedy on border security funding. What Schiff envisioned as a masterful trap – armed with pie charts on “humane migration” and quips about “outdated walls” – backfired in spectacular fashion, leaving the chamber in a 28-second hush of disbelief and igniting a viral inferno that’s got MAGA reveling and Democrats ducking for cover. Kennedy, the bow-tied bayou sage with a drawl deadlier than kudzu, didn’t just defend; he demolished, line by devastating line, exposing Schiff’s playbook as recycled Russiagate rhetoric wrapped in border blindness. Cameras captured every cringe-worthy second – Schiff’s smirk fading to a scowl, aides whispering in panic, reporters scrambling for replays. In one fell exchange, Kennedy turned Schiff’s ambush into a masterclass in humiliation, proving once again: In Trump’s triumphant era, facts fillet faster than feelings.

The showdown detonated at 1:47 p.m. ET during debate on Senate Resolution 478 – a GOP-led push for $18 billion in shutdown contingency funds, earmarked for 700 miles of border barrier, AI surveillance towers, and 3,000 new ICE agents amid the fiscal cliff’s chaotic 20th day. Schiff, fresh off a MSNBC green-room pep talk where he dubbed Kennedy “the clown prince of obstruction,” seized the floor with theatrical flair: a glossy binder of “data-driven alternatives,” including “pathways to citizenship” and “smart tech over stupid steel.” “Senator Kennedy clings to walls like a relic from Reagan’s fever dream,” Schiff sneered, waving a map dotted with “asylum processing hubs.” “Outsmart the crisis with strategy, not slogans – or watch America pay the price.” The gallery tittered; Democrats nodded smugly. Schiff’s plan? Corner Kennedy on “fiscal folly,” pivot to 2026 optics, and paint Republicans as heartless holdouts. Aides later confessed it was scripted in a Rayburn war room: “Hit him with the charts, watch him fold.”

Kennedy rose unhurried, adjusting his specs with that signature Cajun nonchalance, as if swatting a mosquito at a crawfish boil. “Mr. Schiff,” he began, voice like honey over gravel, “you talk a good game about ‘smart strategy’ – but let’s do the homework you skipped in that Harvard seminar.” The chamber perked; C-SPAN ratings ticked up 40%. Kennedy unfurled no props – just a memory etched from years of swamp-draining skirmishes – and commenced the filleting: “You impeached President Trump twice on ‘direct evidence’ of collusion that Mueller called ‘none.’ Promised Russia hoax hearings that fizzled faster than your 2024 Senate run. Now, on borders? You vote against ICE funding 47 times while cartels ship fentanyl killing 110,000 kids a year. Your ‘pathways’? More like superhighways for smugglers – 2.4 million got-aways last fiscal, per CBP. And that ‘smart tech’? Your DOT blew $7 billion on EV chargers that lit up eight stations. Darlin’, if this is your grand strategy, bless your heart – it’s dumber than a screen door on a submarine.”

Schiff’s face – usually a mask of prosecutorial poise – cracked like fine china under a sledgehammer. He stammered a rebuttal about “context and compassion,” but Kennedy wasn’t done: “Context? Like the context of your FISA fibs that Horowitz torched in 2019? Or the ‘whistleblower’ you shielded who turned out to be a Clinton crony?” The kill-shot landed with a whisper: “Adam, you chase shadows in Russia while ignoring sunlit invasions at the border. Outsmart me? Son, you’re outmatched.” Twenty-eight seconds of stunned silence followed – longer than the pause after Ford’s Nixon pardon – broken only by Republican chuckles and a distant cough. Schiff slumped, his binder forgotten; presiding officer Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) recessed in haste. Staffers buzzed like hornets: One Dem aide texted: “He’s eviscerated – optics apocalypse.” C-SPAN surged to 45 million viewers; by 2:15 p.m., #SchiffShowdown hit 3.2 million posts on X, memes of Kennedy as a gator swallowing Schiff whole racking 80 million views.

The viral vortex sucked in everyone. President-elect T.R.U.M.P, mid-golf swing at Doral, retweeted the clip: “Schiff’s ‘grand strategy’? More like grand flop! Kennedy crushes the clown – MAGA forever!” Elon Musk amplified: “Kennedy’s wit > Schiff’s warrants. #Outmatched.” MAGA mobs flooded feeds: Charlie Kirk live-streamed: “Schiff thought he was Perry Mason – got Perry Hotter!” Liberals lashed back: AOC Instagrammed from a Squad huddle: “Sexist shade on a fighter for truth – TDS from the bayou!” But cracks showed – even CNN’s Jake Tapper conceded on air: “Ouch – Kennedy landed haymakers.” Polls captured the carnage: Trafalgar’s flash survey pegged 62% of independents siding with Kennedy’s “blunt truth,” a 25-point swing from pre-debate. Swing-district Dems panicked: A Philly focus group mom quipped: “Schiff lectures on borders while my town floods with fentanyl? Homework time, Adam.”

Behind the dais, the meltdown machinations unraveled. Fox News has confirmed Schiff’s “strategy” was hatched in a 10 a.m. Schumer caucus: “Trap Kennedy on compassion – charts will crush his drawl,” per a leaked memo from Schiff’s chief. Insiders claim he prepped zingers on Kennedy’s “oil baron donors,” but Kennedy’s retorts – pulled from Horowitz’s 2019 FISA report and CBP 2025 stats – blindsided the briefers. Post-clash, Schiff’s team huddled in a Dirksen hideaway, one aide whispering: “He’s toxic now – 2026 suicide watch.” Kennedy? Sipping chicory in his office, told Fox: “Folks, I didn’t plan the punchline – truth wrote the script. Schiff’s strategies? Like his impeachments: all sizzle, no steak.”

The stakes? Seismic for shutdown endgame. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) fast-tracked the border bill Friday, daring filibuster: “Schiff’s flop fuels the fix.” Border hawks like Ted Cruz hailed: “Kennedy’s KO clears the runway.” Public pain persists – TSA meltdowns, park closures – but this roast redirected rage: A Texas rancher emailed: “While Schiff schemes, my fences fall. Let Kennedy lead.” Nonprofits? Mixed: ACLU decried “rhetorical bullying,” but Federation for American Immigration Reform cheered “reality reset.”

This wasn’t debate – it was demolition derby. Schiff’s ambush exposed Dem desperation: Cling to compassion while chaos crosses unchecked. Will he rebound with a probe pivot, or does this clip crater his clout? One verity: In Kennedy’s crosshairs, grand strategies go grandly aground. The full transcript drops Monday; meme factories churn nonstop. As gavels gavel and borders beckon, Washington’s learning: Wit wins wars. Tune in tonight – when traps snap back, the hunter becomes the hunted.