The right-wing pundit tipped as Donald Trump’s new White House press secretary jumped in sharply to defend the president’s young blonde assistant from Democratic gibes.
The Daily Beast revealed last week that Scott Jennings, CNN’s in-house MAGA talking head, is a frontrunner to replace Karoline Leavitt as Trump’s chief spokesperson.
Jennings, 48, has not publicly confirmed his interest in the job, but went after Sen. Jon Ossoff after his snarky comment about Trump’s executive assistant, Natalie Harp.
At a re-election rally in Atlanta on Sunday, Ossoff name-checked Trump’s 35-year-old aide, who is a constant presence at Trump’s side as he travels around the country. Nicknamed “the human printer,” Harp feeds the 80-year-old president printouts of news stories and messages, and helps crafts his multiple Truth Social posts.
The Georgia senator, whose outspoken attacks on Trump have seen him tipped as a possible Democratic candidate for president, then doubled down on it in subsequent TV hits, describing her as the president’s “security blanket,” although without naming her directly.
Amid a MAGA backlash, Jennings posted the sort of social media comment that wouldn’t have looked out of place if it had been written by a White House staffer.
“What a coward. Own your sexist joke, bro,” he posted on X on Monday.
The actual White House communications director, Stephen Cheung, was even blunter, calling Ossoff “Jon Jackoff” and branding him a “cuck loser.”
Ossoff sparked controversy at Sunday’s rally in Atlanta when he rattled off the many ways he believes Trump is failing in office, including that he plays golf, trades stocks, “sleeps through his meetings,” and “drains our munitions and oil reserves” in the unpopular Iran War.
He also went for Harp, whose close professional relationship with Trump has set tongues wagging. “See, he doesn’t want to do the job,” Ossoff said. “He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar.”
The gibe clearly struck a nerve as it led the president to dismiss Ossoff as a “Pee-wee Herman lookalike” to journalists in the Oval Office.
Speaking to MSNOW host Jen Psaki on The Briefing, Ossoff was asked why he’d specifically decided to “invoke” Harp’s name.
Without using Harp’s name again, Ossoff replied that he’d “heard this particular aide referred to as the president’s security blanket.” Widening his comments to other senior aides in the White House, he added: “They’re not telling him what he needs to hear. They’re telling him what he wants to hear. And the nation is at war, and we cannot afford that.”
Ossoff also repeated his comment about Trump playing golf and the stock exchange, calling it “a disgrace.”
Jennings has long been one of Trump’s most loyal supporters, known for his combative defenses on CNN—closely watched by the president. This appears to have positioned him strongly to to take over from Leavitt, 28, who announced last week she would be stepping down as White House press secretary.
