All posts tagged "scott jennings"

'Offensive': GOP insider Scott Jennings sees his old anti-Trump complaint used against him

GOP strategist Scott Jennings erupted on Wednesday night after a panelist on CNN noted something unsavory about the president's latest move.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump deployed more than 1,000 federal troops to Washington, D.C., to address local crime. He described the move as "Liberation Day" and said the military officers were going to "take our capital back." That is despite federal data showing that crime in the city is at a 30-year low.

During CNN's "NewsNight with Abby Phillip," Democrat strategist Julie Roginsky recalled another time when there was a lot of crime in DC. She also noted that Trump chose not to deploy federal troops back then.

"I guess I'm old enough, Scott, to remember when you were appalled, as the rest of us were, on January 6 when he wouldn't..." Roginsky said before Jennings cut her off.

"So, because January 6 happened, we shouldn't enforce the law today?" Jennings shot back. "You want murders today?"

Roginsky, Jennings, panelist Jillian Michaels, and host Abby Phillip then began shouting over one another.

"It's a silly argument!" Jennings shouted.

"Just let her finish, Scott," Phillip said. "We haven't even heard the argument yet."

"She keeps taking pop shots at me, and I'm not going to allow it!" Jennings said. "It's a stupid argument, and I'm not going to allow it."

After the argument subsided, Roginsky said Trump could have deployed the National Guard on January 6, but chose not to.

"We all know that he's doing this because it's a power grab," Roginsky said. "He could have done it when this district was actually in danger on January 6, but he didn't. And I think that is what is so offensive."

"He talks about backing the blue or backing law enforcement, but he doesn't give a d----," Roginsky added.

Watch the entire clip below or by clicking here.

'Don't interrupt me': CNN conservative Scott Jennings admonished by fellow strategist

CNN's Scott Jennings got a scolding when he interrupted a Democratic strategist discussing Thursday's Supreme Court arguments on Donald Trump's desire to do away with automatic birthright citizenship.

"This is what I don't get," Lis Smith began on Thursday's "The Arena" with Kasie Hunt. "It is pretty crystal clear in the Constitution, if you're born here, you get citizenship. And, why is Donald Trump picking this fight? Only 25% of voters support getting rid of birthright citizenship; less than 50% of Republicans do. And, you know, I'm not in the business of giving Donald Trump advice."

She continued, "Scott you could call up the president and give him some really good advice and say, 'Hey, you know, that comprehensive immigration bill that you helped tank last year?"

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"Are you still on that?" Jennings interrupted. "Even though you lost the election over it."

"Scott, let me talk. Don't interrupt me," Smith admonished. " But, you could take that bill — you now control the White House, the House and the Senate — and pass it. Presidents from both parties for decades have been trying to get this through. He could be a historic president by doing that. Instead, he's taking on a fight like birthright citizenship, which is a loser for them, will not go through. And I think that this is why, you know, people are turning against Trump on an issue that was one of his strongest against Democrats in November."

"I'll just briefly answer," Jennings retorted. "We didn't need the bill; we just needed a new president, as Donald Trump has argued. He changed executive branch policy, and has effectively closed the southern border. And now he's taking executive action to get rid of the violent people who were here. We don't need legislation. We just need the executive branch to be able to do what's clearly enumerated them to do in the Constitution.

Watch the clip below via CNN.

'Was it?' GOP insider Scott Jennings rendered speechless when challenged on Trump spending

Former George W. Bush special assistant Scott Jennings was rendered uncharacteristically speechless Sunday on CNN.

Jennings, a frequent contributor to CNN's TV lineup, appeared on the network over the weekend to talk about the Republicans' upcoming budget fights. He specifically highlighted the tax and spending debate as one area in which the GOP could gain some ground in voter approval.

"I think it's a worthy debate to have. I know Democrats are going to argue to keep every dollar and raise every tax, but I do think the Republicans here have some room to run, which is controlling spending, cutting taxes on working class people, making the tax cuts permanent," Jennings said. "This is an area where I do think there's some possibility of improvement in public opinion for the Republicans. If they're able to get their reconciliation package done."

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But Dan Koh, a special assistant to then-President Joe Biden, challenged the notorious Trump defender.

"I think it's just really difficult for Republicans to have one side say they're being fiscally conservative, when Donald Trump added more to the deficit than any president in modern history, I think this is a very difficult," Koh said.

Jennings then interjected, asking, "What happened during his presidency?"

The two spoke over each other as Jennings reminded Koh about Covid spending, and Koh said Trump should have been more "fiscally responsible."

Koh then asked, "Was it a historic add to the deficit or not?"

After briefly being rendered speechless, Jennings dodged the question, saying, "It was a historic pandemic that we had to respond to."

Watch below or click the link.

'Scared and sick': CNN guest warns focus put on special elections is a bad sign for Trump

CNN's John Berman asked conservative commentator Scott Jennings to explain in one sentence what he thinks President Donald Trump's tariff policy will look like when he announces it on April 2, adding, "Do you think [the president] can explain it in one sentence today?"

"Well, I would never want to predict or get ahead of Donald Trump," Jennings began. "But my view is, is that he's been very clear that he believes tariffs will force more manufacturing, more production, more onshoring into the United States, which will ultimately be good for the working class of America."

Jennings said the people who agree with the president are the unions, like the head of the United Auto Workers, Shawn Fain.

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"But Scott, what's he doing? What's he going to do?" Berman continued. "Because he said 'reciprocal' — now he's maybe saying not now."

Berman added that no one eally knows where Trump is going with this strategy, "and this is like two days from now."

Jennings explained the general principle behind Trump's thinking is "he believes that tariffs force jobs, manufacturing and production back into the United States. The working class will benefit from this. and if allowed to play out over the long term, it will benefit, you know, the core working class constituency that he believes has been hollowed out by trade policies of the past. that is their general economic view."

ALSO READ: 'Not much I can do': GOP senator gives up fight against Trump's tariffs

Peter Navarro, senior counselor for trade, "says 10 years, $6 trillion of revenue of revenue from tariffs, which some economists will tell you is $6 trillion in taxes," Berman added.

Democratic political consultant Maria Cardona claimed, "This is something that Americans are actually becoming very concerned with, and that's why you're seeing the volatility in all of these special elections. The fact that we are even talking about the two special elections in Florida tomorrow, John, I think is an indication of how scared and sick voters are about what Trump is imposing on them versus what they expected because of his promises during the election."

Trump said on Sunday that the reciprocal tariffs he plans to announce this week will include all nations, "not just a smaller group of 10 to 15 countries with the biggest trade imbalances," according to NBC News.

Watch the video below or at this link.

Trump's Tesla stunt was no 'homage' to workers: Conservative breaks with CNN's Jennings

Conservative Jonah Goldberg set CNN's Scott Jennings straight Wednesday for claiming President Donald Trump was promoting American workers with his Tesla stunt on the White House lawn.

On Tuesday, Trump staged a much-mocked photo op with five Tesla vehicles after vowing to buy one to help Elon Musk's company rebound over DOGE backlash.

Xochitl Hinojosa, a panelist on Kasie Hunt's "The Arena" addressed Jennings saying, "As a Republican strategist, you wouldn't have advised him to go in front of the White House and drive a Tesla!"

"Wait, why?" Jennings retorted. "Of course I would have! You know why? Because if I were advising a Republican president, I would say, 'Let's support American companies that have thousands of American workers and thousands more workers who make indirect products for it.' Yeah, I think it would be a good idea if American companies did well."

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He added, "I've never seen Democrats so excited to tear down an American company or companies the way they are right now. It's crazy!"

After much back-and-forth, Goldberg contradicted Jennings, saying, "I don't think the Tesla event was done as a homage to the American worker. It was a favor to Elon Musk, who's — I take Trump at his word — that he thinks Elon is being treated unfairly."

Goldberg continued, "I think what this whole spectacle really does is, it takes the bloom off of the honeymoon in the sense that when Trump hit the ground running with all those executive orders, it really seemed like he had a plan for what they were going to do, right? This time was different. He knew all the punditry was about how he knows what he wants to do, and he's going to have the people in place who won't undermine him, and all that kind of stuff. And in the last month, we've just seen this on again, off again, 'I'm going to do tariffs, I'm not going to do tariffs.' He's trying to say, 'Well, it's just about flexibility.' And I think what's rattling the markets more than anything else is that he's kind of making it up as he goes along."

Watch the clip via CNN below.

'You know that's true, Scott': CNN's Jennings fact-checked on Elon Musk's overreach

CNN conservative commentator Scott Jennings mocked a former Obama official for claiming she was terrified over Elon Musk's "conflict of interest" with the government agencies he's tasked with reforming.

"Okay, fine. you want to make cuts, make cuts," Xochitl Hinojosa declared on Sunday's State of the Union. "There are significant conflicts of interest when it comes to Elon Musk, and that is the problem. He owns several businesses where personal data and personal information could benefit his financial interests."

She continued, "And the sources that I've been talking to within the FBI are actually terrified that he is trying to put people within the FBI in order to advance his financial interests. One example of that is, he wants the FBI to start using Starlink. So how frightening is that?"

Anchor Dana Bash interjected to clarify that "Starlink is his own internet company."

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"He wants FBI to start using Starlink to start tracking people. Now, that is terrifying to me that he, he is not acting, as as Scott likes to say, 'On behalf of the president.' He is acting on behalf of himself, and I think people should be very scared about that."

"You're terrified that the FBI might have the internet?" Jennings quipped.

"No, I'm terrified that Elon Musk is putting people in federal agencies to figure out business opportunities for him, and you know that's true, Scott!"

"I think that's overblown," Jennings said. "He's the richest man in the world — "

"That's concerning!" Hinojosa exclaimed.

Jennings continued, "He's like sleeping on the whatever, the floor of a government office building seven days a week in order help this government. The spending is interesting. We're not going to balance the budget based on these spending cuts, although some of this stuff is patently, objectively ridiculous. And when I see Democrats rushing out to defend some of the things that are, you know, that that he's cutting, I mean, it makes the Democratic Party sink to a very low levels."

Watch the clip below via CNN or at the link..

CNN Republican put on the spot over GOP 'dissent' from Trump

CNN's John Berman ticked off the list of grumblings from GOP lawmakers over some of Donald Trump's recent actions that could "cross a line" and impede the president from accomplishing his agenda.

On Monday's News Central, Berman asked conservative commentator Scott Jennings about "the smattering of small dissent that we've heard over the last three of four days."

"You had your old boss, Scott, Mitch McConnell, voting no on Pete Hegseth. You've got Lindsey Graham and Tom Cotton saying they wish that President Trump hadn't removed the security details from John Bolton and others. You got Chuck Grassley overnight saying, 'What's going on with President Trump illegally firing these inspectors general?' So, Scott, my question to you is, how much louder will dissent like this get? Might it get? And when do you think it will cross a line that it would impede President Trump from certain actions?" Berman asked.

Jennings responded that it was "natural" for a party with "such a broad constituency" to have some dissent.

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"If you have a few Republicans today criticizing on small issues here and there, that's different than if people en masse decided they didn't want to support the Trump agenda," Jennings said. "But the big ticket issues — taxes, energy, immigration — the things where they're really trying to change the country, 'A,' there's no dissent now, and 'B', I think there's going to be widespread support for what Trump's doing in the Republican Party. You'll see no dissent for that on Capitol Hill."

Liberal commentator Maria Cardona then said that the dissent means "zero" to Trump.

"I don't think he cares," Cardona said. "This is what we've seen from the very beginning — he is acting like an imperial president because he was handed an imperial presidency by the Supreme Court. And, frankly, all of this dissent now that you're talking about, John, really doesn't matter because, where was it before when Trump was very clear as to what he was going to do? So Scott is right. I mean, the agenda that President Trump put forward is no secret, and so all of this dissent right now, to me, kind of means nothing among their own party if they don't really do anything about it.

Watch the video below or at this link.

'Appalled!' CNN's Scott Jennings condemns Dems' 'unseemly mudslinging' against Hegseth

CNN conservative commentator Scott Jennings claimed he was "appalled" by Democrats' line of questioning of defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth.

Jennings gave his assessment on Tuesday's Senate hearing to Dana Bash, saying, "In short, I think Pete Hegseth kicked their today asses today. I mean, it wasn't even close. They didn't lay a glove on Hegseth. No mistakes. Calm, cool, collected."

Jennings then took aim at protesters who heckled Hegseth as he gave his opening statement, as well as the quality of questions asked by the Democratic senators.

"I mean, before the thing even started, you had this, like, this CodePink, you know, protester freak show trying to disrupt the hearing. That's the Democratic base, by the way, which probably explains why the Democrats on the committee acted in such a bizarre and unprofessional way," he said.

Protesters displayed signs referring to Hegseth as a "religious extremist," before Capitol Police removed at least four four people from the hearing room.

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During questioning, Democratic senators hammered Hegseth on his past issues with alcohol, sexual abuse claims, and financial mismanagement.

Jennings declared, "I was appalled at some of the way these senators handled themselves and some of the lines of questioning. I mean, Tim Kane sounded like a sex pervert in his questioning of Pete Hegseth. Blumenthal, who lied about his service in Vietnam, questioning Hegseth's qualifications. You had Gillibrand, you had Warren, you had Hirono going on unhinged rants about things. Angus King obviously doesn't understand what it's like to fight terrorism — on and on and on. Hegseth was cool in the face of this unhinged questioning. They made him look good today. It would be difficult for a Republican to vote against Hegseth after the Democrats' unseemly mudslinging today."

At the beginning of the discussion, Bash said Donald Trump's team was "in good spirits" over the hearing. "They see the warm reception that [Hegseth] received from Republican senators as a very good sign."

Watch the clip below via CNN or at this link.

'Zip it!' Frustrated CNN host shuts down conservative Scott Jennings in on-air row

CNN conservative pundit Scott Jennings was told to "zip it" Monday during a dustup with former Democratic Party lawmaker Bakari Sellers and anchor Kate Bolduan over the issues that President-elect Donald Trump is set to inherit as Congress readies to certify the 2024 election.

The conversation veered from the southern border to combat zones to the economy.

"Inflation is still going up," Jennings argued, while Sellers declared that it's "plateauing."

Bolduan jumped into the fray to add, "It is decreasing in rate, which is the entire goal of the Federal Reserve."

"Well, are prices going down or not? Just to be clear. No, they are not," Jennings continued.

Bolduan shot back, "They are down from their sky-high rates."

"No, no, no, no, no!" Jennings exclaimed.

"Scott! Let's move on," Bolduan admonished as Jennings shook his head and laughed.

"We were just arguing over combat zones," Sellers exclaimed. "I don't know where we are this morning!"

"You're going to argue with me!" Bolduan declared, as Jennings continued, "You're trying to paint a picture of something that doesn't exist!"

"Zip it!" Bolduan reprimanded him. "I'm not painting anything! I'm not — stop talking!"

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Congress is set to certify Trump's election win at noon Monday, in a formality that was vastly different four years ago. That's when the Capitol riots broke out after Trump told MAGA supporters to "fight like hell" in a rally speech down the street from where Congress had gathered to certify Joe Biden's 2020 election win.

At the beginning of the CNN segment, Sellers tried to highlight the disparity between the mood four years ago and the one Monday.

"I think that Democrats should go out and Joe Biden should rally on the Mall. I think then we should go in and sit on Mike Johnson's desk. We should take the Confederate flag and parade through the Capitol. I think we should injure 140 officers. And, then, if Kamala Harris dares to certify the vote, we should threaten to hang her. I mean, do you see how — I think people should understand how ludicrous that sounds, but that's where we were four years ago. That is what this incoming president helped usher in."

Watch the clip below via CNN.

Ex-Democratic official declares there are 3 factors that prove 'Donald Trump is weak'

Ashley Etienne, the former deputy press secretary for Vice President Kamala Harris, declared that there are three factors proving Donald Trump is "weak" as he prepares to move back into the White House.

Etienne appeared on CNN Friday with Republican strategist Scott Jennings shortly before the House vote.

"Donald Trump's endorsed Speaker Johnson...strongly...There's still these unknowns. There's still these 12 members that aren't sure that they're going to vote for the Speaker yet. We don't know the answer to that question. Secondly, he lost the the shutdown fight, the debt ceiling fight. Thirdly, Elon Musk is running the White House without even being in the White House. There's all these unanswered — "

"Well, to be clear, to be clear, the current White House is being run by Joe Biden's unelected staff," Jennings interjected. "But go ahead."

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Etienne continued, "But, nevertheless...Elon Musk is calling the shots domestically and internationally, going after some of our U.S. allies just recently."

Jennings interrupted again, asking "Who's the current, president and who's in charge? Can you answer?"

"It doesn't matter!" Etienne answered. "The point is, that Donald Trump is showing that he's weak. When you have somebody like Elon Musk making the decisions — I worked in two White Houses. No one gets ahead of the president or the president-elect, and Elon Musk is. So for me, this shows a weakness among Donald Trump, and it's not the strong footing that he would want..."

Friday morning, Trump posted his support for Johnson, writing, "Good luck today for Speaker Mike Johnson, a fine man of great ability, who is very close to having 100% support. A win for Mike today will be a big win for the Republican Party, and yet another acknowledgment of our 129 year most consequential Presidential Election!! - A BIG AFFIRMATION, INDEED. MAGA!"

Still, at least one MAGA Republican, Thomas Massie, was vocal in his opposition of Johnson due to Johnson's actions during the recent budget battle in which the Speaker negotiated with Democrats to pass the continuing resolution.

Watch the video below via CNN or click the link.