CNN correspondent Scott Jennings has been grilled on rumors about him taking over as the new White House press secretary.
Karoline Leavitt is vacating the role to spend more time with her family, with the MAGA commentator now the current frontrunner to take on the prominent role, sources with knowledge of the situation told the Daily Beast.
During an appearance on CNN’s The Source on Thursday, host Kaitlan Collins asked Jennings about the reports.
“I don‘t really have anything to say about it other than, I mean, I would get to see you every day, and I would think you‘d be happy about this,” Jennings told Collins.
“I already see you every day,” Collins noted, with Jennings pointing out it was only “one or two days a week,” in his role as CNN’s senior on-air political commentator and contributor.
“Can you imagine, every single day, getting to go to work where I am?” a jovial Jennings said, adding to Collins, “This should be an amazing thing for you.”
Collins then told her CNN colleague, “We already work together, Scott.”
She added of Jennings’ noncommittal response, “But that’s not a no.”
Jennings said, “I’m not here every day,” referring to his CNN role, but made no further comment on the White House rumors.
Former White House strategist Paul Begala, who worked with Bill Clinton, who was alongside Jennings on The Source, said of the press secretary role, “That’s a thankless job and I don’t wish it on anybody, I especially don’t wish it on Scott, because he’s my friend.”
Jennings, 48, who regularly defends Trump on CNN and on his own podcast, has a background in public relations and served in the George W. Bush administration as a special assistant to the president and deputy director of political affairs.
He also previously worked as an adviser to missing Sen. Mitch McConnell, 84, and worked on several of the Kentucky Republican’s re-election campaigns.
He was equally coy when asked directly if he would consider taking the role during a Wednesday appearance on CNN’s NewsNight.
Jennings initially shook his head when asked if he was throwing his name in the mix, then offered Leavitt praise instead of answering yes or no.
“Karoline Leavitt has been maybe the greatest White House press secretary in the last 30 years, at least. She’s been nothing short of brilliant,” Jennings said on NewsNight.
“I don’t know a single Republican in the country who isn’t in awe of and in appreciation of Karoline tonight. So Godspeed on your journey back to your family. You’ve done great stuff.”
Leavitt will not step down from her role as press secretary until the end of August.
Jennings’ close connection to Trump includes the release of a book, A Revolution of Common Sense: How Donald Trump Stormed Washington and Fought for Western Civilization, which was released last November.
Jennings interviewed Trump extensively for the book.
As well as his CNN work, he hosts a daily national radio program, The Scott Jennings Show, on the Salem Radio Network.
When he took the role last year, Salem’s Senior VP Phil Boyce called Jennings a “disruptor,” and said he was “the Lone Ranger of the CNN panel, armed with facts and fearless in delivery. He doesn’t just survive in hostile territory — he dominates.”
