Anchor plops Trumper in hotseat over president’s 'grift'

Republican strategist and political commentator Scott Jennings fielded no end of hard questions on CNN after Republicans appeared to reject President Donald Trump’s controversial $1.8B weaponization fund orchestrated solely by his personal appointees.

Cooper noted Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kent.) saying “so the nation's top law enforcement official is asking for a slush fund to pay people who assault cops. Utterly stupid, morally wrong. Take your pick.” And he asked Jennings if he agreed with the senator.

Jennings found himself in the unfamiliar position of agreeing with a Trump opponent.

“Well, I certainly agree that anybody who assaults a police officer should not be getting any payment,” Jennings said, adding that he was “not surprised the president's having trouble with the Senate” on financing the fund.

“He already had a few senators that weren't happy with him. And … now there's a couple more that have nothing to lose, really, by standing up to him,” said Jennings. He added, however, that “some people were over prosecuted” and other “swept up unfairly.”

“I think if you have been treated unfairly by the government, you ought to be able to apply for some restitution. But whether this fund is the correct vehicle for that, I think the Congress is going to want to talk about that,” Jennings said.

But Democratic strategist Paul Begala, who described the fund a grift, called out the many people injured by the government that Trump was not targeting for reparations.

“I got to say, if we're going to compensate anybody, let's start with the families of Renee Goode and Alex Pretti: peaceful, patriotic protesters. They weren't prosecuted. They were shot and killed. And I don't see that,: said Begala. “In fact, President Trump's aides slandered them, smeared them, called them terrorists.”

Cooper then asked Jennings about restitution for FBI agents forced to retire or fired, after decades of service for being assigned to an investigation of Trump.

“Should this go back decades to the Civil Rights Movement and the legions of people who were imprisoned, beaten, or fired from their jobs?” Cooper asked Jennings. “I mean, there's been generations of people who have been abused by various federal governments.”

“The short answer, Anderson, is, ‘I don't know,’” said Jennings. “I've not been handed any parameters for how this fund is going to be applied.”

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