CNN Host Scolds Scott Jennings for Cutting In to Defend Trump: ‘I Care When You Overtalk Me’

CNN host Laura Coates scolded GOP analyst Scott Jennings for interrupting her to continue defending President Donald Trump over his attacks on judges.

Trump and his administration have been pushing back against judicial rulings, most notably in their response to the Supreme Court’s ruling in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the wrongly deported Maryland man being held in El Salvador. But new polls show defying the courts is deeply unpopular.

On Thursday night’s edition of CNN’s Laura Coates Live, Coates asked Jennings about the poll, but bristled when he tried to cut in to continue his defense when it was her turn to talk:

COATES: Well, Scott, you know, I want to talk about the — the courts in addition to what we are seeing with the economy because the Pew research survey finding that 78%, Scott, of Americans say the administration has to follow a court’s ruling. Now, by the way, that number jumps to 88% if the Supreme Court issues a ruling. That’s clearly an overwhelming majority. You do see, though, the administration attacking judges and the courts. Is that a mistake?

JENNINGS: Well, first of all, the president has said he will follow the Supreme Court’s decisions. He has always said that about all of these cases. They may have some differences of opinion about the rendering of certain decisions and how to handle and implement certain decisions, but the president has always said he’s going to follow the decisions.

Now, I do think that these individual district court judges that are being selectively shocked by people who oppose the president, trying to issue nationwide injunctions and stop the president from governing, I think that’s a real problem.

I mean, it’s a constitutional crisis, in my opinion, for these individual district court judges to try to tie up Donald Trump. I mean, it’s obvious what they’re trying to do, which is to run out the clock until he’s no longer in office.

It’s sort of what the Democrats did the first time around. They don’t want him to be able to govern. Now, the Supreme Court, as you pointed out in the polling, people have a lot of respect for it and so does President Trump.

So, I — I really do think that if he’s allowed to govern, if he’s allowed to do the things that he ran on, if he’s allowed to continue to, you know, deport illegal aliens, if he’s allowed to continue to do the things he told the American people he was going to do, he’ll be fine.

But the truth is he’s running into a wall of resistance in some of these individual federal district court judges, and I think the Congress honestly needs to step in or the Supreme Court needs to step in because it’s not right, what they’re doing to this presidency.

COATES: Scott, first of all — I’m going to get you in here, Xochitl, on this point. But first of all, some of these are Trump appointees, number one. And the idea of you saying him not being —

JENNINGS: I don’t care. I don’t care who appointed him. I don’t care. I don’t care. I don’t care. They’re wrong.

COATES: Here’s what I do care about. I care why I let you speak and you over-talk me. So, here’s the point that I was making. Some are appointed by Trump. And number two, the idea of not having them be able to govern when they’re actually talking about assessing the injunctive relief.

Xochitl, these are sometimes temporary measures to then fully evaluate the actual claims that are being made before the court. It doesn’t mean that the administration was going to lose, but to put a pin in an injunctive relief.

And to that end, the Supreme Court, at least two justices have said they want to explore the notion of nationwide injunctive relief. But if the president criticizes their authority and undermines their credibility, they might not be followed, which is going to be a death knell for the law in this country.

Watch above via CNN’s Laura Coates Live.