CNN MAGA contributor Scott Jennings was ridiculed live on air after claiming that Donald Trump was close to agreeing to a deal with Iran to end the war weeks ago.
During a typically argumentative episode of NewsNight with Abby Phillip, the CNN panel discussed how talks between the U.S. and Iran have repeatedly failed amid the shaky ceasefire, and how the conflict appears to have no clear end in sight despite the president’s frequent insistence that it will be over any day now.
At one point, CNN commentator Bakari Sellers suggested that “Iran has run circles around” Trump during the negotiations and that “we’ve been here before.”
“Just three weeks ago, my friend Scott Jennings was talking about the fact that we were on the brink of an agreement, and we were going to get everything we wanted, and you know what, that wasn’t true,” Sellers said, with Jennings sitting next to him with his arms folded.
Sellers was referring to a lengthy X post that Jennings wrote on May 24, claiming that a “senior Trump administration official” had told him an Iran deal was “95 percent” agreed upon, but that it might be a “few more days before this is done.”
The language used by Jennings echoes statements Trump has made nearly 40 times over the past several weeks, insisting that Iran was “very close” to making a deal or that one could happen “any day.”
On Thursday, Trump backed away from a planned “VERY HARD” attack he had threatened against Iran while once again citing apparent progress in talks toward a deal.
“Based on the fact that discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved, I have, as President of the United States of America, canceled the scheduled strikes and bombings against Iran this evening,” he wrote on Truth Social.
“The Naval Blockade will remain in full force and effect until this Transaction is finalized—Time and place of the signing to be announced shortly.”
While speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday, the president continued to make vague promises that a deal is imminent.
“The Strait [of Hormuz] will officially open as soon as we sign, which could be soon, very soon, maybe over the weekend in Europe,” Trump said.
Elsewhere on NewsNight, Carla Sands, Trump’s former U.S. ambassador to Denmark, suggested the U.S. would “get everything we want” in a deal with Iran because “President Trump is a strong president.”
In response, Sellers said: “My kids are so excited every Christmas, and they get everything they want because Santa brings it.”
