A MAGA pundit tearing ahead in the race to become Donald Trump’s next press secretary went overboard trying to defend his master’s “human binkie.”
CNN talking head Scott Jennings, 48, has fast emerged as frontrunner to replace 28-year-old Karoline Leavitt after her shock announcement last week that she’d be stepping down, although he’s not confirmed that he wants the job.
His latest out-loud audition brought accusations of hypocrisy after he tried to claim that Republican women were being unfairly targeted even though the president routinely attacks CNN’s female correspondents.
Appearing on Tuesday night’s edition of Laura Coates Live, Jennings tore into Sen. Jon Ossoff after the Georgia Democrat told a weekend rally that Trump “doesn’t want to do the job—he wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie.”
Ossoff was referring to Natalie Harp, the 80-year-old president’s 35-year-old personal assistant known as the “human printer” because she prints out news stories and messages she thinks Trump should read. Harp also types out the president’s social media posts for him, often late into the night.
Jennings blasted Ossoff as “a disgusting coward” for going after “an unknown presidential aide,” who’s “not a public figure, she’s not a household name,” and for suggesting “the only reason she has her job at the White House is because, hey, that’s what Republican women are good for, right?”
Host Laura Coates quickly pointed out that Ossoff had, in fact, said nothing of the sort. She suggested instead that Jennings’ read of the senator’s comments was simply the pundit’s “intimation of what happened.”
The MAGA talking head only doubled down. “The party of women likes to tell us that ‘We’re here for women’s rights, and we’re gonna promote women,’” he said, referring to Democrats. “You’ve got one of their leading candidates for president out dragging an unknown woman, who’s gone off to serve her government, through the mud, insinuating the only possible reason she could have a job in politics is because she’s a concubine for a politician.”
Jennings then quickly lost his cool at fellow panelist Ashley Etienne, who served as director of communications for former Vice President Kamala Harris. He repeatedly interrupted Etienne as she argued that Ossoff had “never suggested anything to that degree,” and that Jennings’s “fake outrage” was only because “you believe there’s probably some level of truth to it.”
“You took it there,” she shot back at him. “You made the statement about Republican women. He never said that.”
The pair continued to butt heads and rage over one another until Coates finally intervened. Jennings had just applauded the White House for defending Harp from Ossoff’s comments by calling the senator names like “Dumocrat” and “Pee-Wee Herman look-alike.”
“You mean like the way that CNN defends the attacks against our female journalists, who are simply in place and doing their jobs, and are routinely attacked, as recently as yesterday?” Coates put it to Jennings, calling him out for his hypocrisy. “Imagine!”
Harp’s rabid loyalty and closeness to Trump, 45 years her senior, have freaked out even the president’s own security detail. New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman says her current nickname wholly undersells their relationship, suggesting that “human binkie,” because she’s Trump’s “comfort blanket,” better fits the bill.
