Scott Jennings Schooled With Katie Zacharia Diss Live on CNN
The MAGA mouthpiece quickly found he didn’t have a lot to say.
CNN’s conservative pundit Scott Jennings has been schooled live on TV over a diss involving the MAGA flop whose job he has been tipped to take.
Jennings appeared on Laura Coates Live on Sunday, and was quick to toe the Republican Party line over Abdul El-Sayed, the hotly tipped Democratic nominee in the Senate race in Michigan.
El-Sayed would be the first Muslim ever elected to the Senate and is leading Trump-aligned Republican Mike Rogers by 46 percent to 44 percent in a new Rasmussen Reports poll.
Ashley Allison and Scott Jennings on CNN.
CNN
CNN played footage of El-Sayed discussing a question he received in Caro, Michigan, on Saturday night from an audience member who identified himself as “Tommy.”
He asked the Democrat, “Will you disavow the Muslim Brotherhood?”
Discussing the exchange, which has gone viral, El-Sayed repeated that he had disavowed the Muslim Brotherhood. El-Sayed later shared the interaction with “Tommy” on his X account, which has been viewed over 12 million times.
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Pointing out Republicans were weaponizing religion, the Democrat later said, “This is what they do when they have no actual message about the real issues in people’s lives.”
Trump has relentlessly attacked El-Sayed.
Rebecca Cook/REUTERS
Jennings said the current coverage of El-Sayed “benefits the Republicans” as his past was being discussed, including “vital questions” he claimed that any potential Congress member should be asked.
“He’s finally being pressed on it, and when he gets pressed on it, he’s obviously a little defensive and has thin skin,” Jennings claimed. “So I’d say this conversation, advantage Republican.”
Former Obama-Biden administration and Biden-Harris campaign senior staffer Ashley Allison was seated next to Jennings, and was baffled by Jennings’ claims.
El-Sayed earned his medical degree from Columbia University in 2014, and earned a PhD in public health from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.
“You want to know about this past? He’s a Rhodes Scholar. He’s been to medical school,” Allison said.
Jennings interjected, “Is he a doctor?”
Ashley Allison on CNN.
CNN
Allison pointed out El-Sayed has a medical degree, and asked Jennings, “Do you have an MD? JD? PhD?” Jennings said, “Can he write you a prescription?”
As the two CNN panelists talked over each other, Allison looked at Jennings and said, “Let me tell you something. I would not have your party being the one out here questioning qualifications when you just had to fire a press secretary because she was lying on her name.”
Jennings was suddenly very quiet, putting his hands up in a surrender-style gesture, before stating, “I wouldn’t make an appointment with Abdul.”
Katie Zacharia, who was Trump’s White House press secretary for a mere five days last week, was repeatedly called out over claims she passed herself off as an attorney, despite not passing the bar exam.
White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia during her first press briefing.
Kevin Lamarque/REUTERS
The Wall Street Journal reported that Zacharia failed the California bar exam after graduating from law school at Pepperdine University in 2011. However on social media, she repeatedly reposted content where she was referred to as an attorney.
Jennings was rumored to be an early frontrunner for Zacharia’s job, which is vacant again just two weeks out from the midterms.
He has once again seemingly put his hand up for the role. After Zacharia’s smoke-bomb exit, Jennings said Trump should hire “the most qualified person you can get, with the most experience, somebody who can stand behind that podium with credibility and not just carry your message but also handle the incoming that is sure to come.”
Allison told Jennings the discussion of El-Sayed’s religion “is pathetic, you should be above this.” She added, “It’s disrespectful, it is un-American, actually. It should not be a part of our democratic process, but you’re doing it to other-ize him.”
“You’re doing it to make people afraid, and I believe the voters of Michigan, Black, white, and everything in between, will see through it.”
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