
CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings has publicly accused his own network of being partially to blame for the misrepresentation of what former President Donald Trump said. Jennings said Monday that the Harris campaign, as well as his network are responsible for characterizing Trump’s comments as something he says in order to “radicalize” people.
The dust-up traces back to earlier in the week when Trump was pushed off a golf punch along with sheer Palm Beach, Florida, after an armed man was found close by. Investigators regard the incident as a possible second assassination try on Trump. In a follow-up to this, Trump alleged President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were inciting violent attacks against him with their inflammatory language.
On a CNN panel hosted by Abby Phillip, contributors discussed whether intense political rhetoric — specifically surrounding Trump — played a part in the recent wave of violence. Jennings said Trump is upset about what he sees as mischaracterization of his words, particularly from Democrats.
That’s because when this turns to politics, and we see the things that Democratic politicians are saying about Donald Trump is based on a bunch of lies and meant to radicalize a political base… makes me wonder: How much do they really care about what you and I all agree is terrible violence? Jennings asked.
Especially, when it came to warning voters of the dangers of Trump being president, Jennings attacked the Harris campaign for using fear tactics. This was a reference to Harris’ persistent statement that “on day one Trump will be a dictator.” This is the narrative Jennings wanted to dispel: “This country fights dictators. That’s our history— we fight dictators,” the panelist to Harris’ left mumbled in response, as his slot on-screen sparked up first.
Jennings also pointed out that Trump’s comments are often “derivative” and taken out of context, such as a town hall with Sean Hannity in December in which he told Hannity at one point that he wouldn’t act like a dictator (except for day one) when pressed on whether he would use executive order to pass certain policies, such as those relating to border security.
Jennings also took issue with the word “bloodbath” that Trump used. Before this, Trump had used the term while foreseeing economic setbacks for the auto industry under Biden Presidency. But in a recent debate, Harris claims Trump had said “there would be a bloodbath if the election didn’t swing his way.”
As Jennings added, “The National Guard statement that you played has been a staple on this network and all the others every day by every Democrat working for or around [Harris’] campaign. He claimed that Harris gave a false impression of Trump’s use of the term over job losses in the vehicle manufacturing sector, rather than poll-related violence.
On an earlier point made by Jennings, Phillip said that “You just heard my wonderful colleague Jennings talk about how the president used that term ‘bloodbath’ when he was talking about jobs in the U.S. manufacturing vehicle industry — Vice President Harris put him to a racial test here and inaccurately characterized this as his saying there would be a bloodbath if he were elected.” But Phillip said: “She didn’t say ‘bloodbath’ if Trump became president.
Jennings concluded that such distortions form part of a wider Democratic game plan against Trump: “The ‘bloodbath’ garbage … is an essential plank in the Democratic effort to undermine President Trump, as are ‘dictator,’ and ‘we’re going to abolish the U.S. Constitution.’ “