CNN's conservative pundit Scott Jennings (Photo: Screen capture)
Conservative pundit and radio host Scott Jennings got shaved by a fellow conservative Tuesday nightTuesday night after struggling to answer for President Donald Trump’s attacks on Democrats at a 9-11 memorial speech.
On Tuesday, while delivering remarks at a 9-11 memorial at the White House, President Donald Trump took advantage of the peaceful moment to attack Democrats.
“Our law enforcement holds our country together in light of some threats. We have some very real threats right now. We have people that want to go a different way. They want to go a communistic way. Well, that's not going to work,” Trump said, referring inaccurately to Democratic Socialist individuals inside the party.
After debunking two of Trump’s claims — that that he sent teams to help fire fighters at the collapsed building and was even “carried” from the building as further signs of collapse—CNN anchor Anderson Cooper asked Jennings directly if that was an appropriate time to attack Democrats.
“Well, I have to say, you know, to the extent that he's defending police officers, I'm sure they appreciated it because they do feel under assault right now,” Jennings said, rallying. “We've had a massive spike in violent attacks on federal law enforcement. You talk to cops around the country, federal or otherwise, and they'll tell you they do feel under threat all the time. And they also feel that the president often stands up for them when other people won't.”
“But under threat from communists?” Copper prodded.
“Well, I mean, Anderson, the people on the radical extreme left in this country have made no, uh, uh, secret of their just desire to abolish ICE. And they blame federal law enforcement for all sorts of things all the time. They constantly call them names. They call them Nazis. They call them gestapo. They put a target on their backs all the time. This is what the radical left says. And frankly, it's what a lot of Democratic politicians say to parrot it and try to get in their good graces.”
But former Trump White House staffer Alyssa Farah Griffin accused Jennings of knowing better.
“It comes down to there being a time and a place to make this a political speech and a political debate. Scott knows this better than me. He worked for President Bush [the president at the time of the 9-11 attacks],” said Griffin. “That was a supposed to be a unifying thing that our country could come together around. I remember George Bush after 9-11 going to a mosque and saying, ‘Islam is a religion of peace,” realizing it was a tense moment in the country that required leadership and unity. President Trump can [attack Democrats] and he can defend cops any day of the week, but not around in a political terms around 9-11. It's just not appropriate.”