Kennedy leans on fact and fiction to tout Louisiana shrimp on the floor of the U.S. Senate
WASHINGTON — Fact met fiction on the floor of the U.S. Senate when Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana tried to raise the alarm about radioactive shrimp.
Standing before a photograph featuring a creature from the movie "Alien," the Republican lawmaker told his colleagues, "This is what you could end up looking like if you eat some of the raw frozen shrimp being sent to the U.S. by other countries."
The Food and Drug Administration last month issued a recall for Indonesian shrimp headed for Walmart stores in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas and West Virginia. The FDA said samples tested were contaminated with cesium-137, a radioactive isotope.
"Even if it doesn't turn you into the alien if you eat this stuff, I guarantee you will grow an extra ear," Kennedy said.
No government agency has warned that eating the contaminated shrimp would cause people to grow extra organs.
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By the end of his remarks, which were distributed to the media Thursday, Kennedy touted the purchase of Louisiana shrimp, "fresh out of the Gulf."