‘Stop The Jingoism!’ CNN’s Scott Jennings Scolded On-Air For Boasting ‘We’re the Most Significant Country’
CNN GOP analyst Scott Jennings was scolded by a fellow panelist and told to “stop the jingoism” when he boasted that the United States is “the most significant country” for trade and “the world’s superpower.”
On Tuesday night’s edition of CNN NewsNight, anchor Abby Phillip and a panel comprised of Jennings, Jemele Hill, Shermichael Singleton, Julie Roginsky, and Jim Sciutto convened to discuss President Donald Trump’s trade war on the heels of his meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
In one exchange, Roginsky slammed Trump as “somebody who shoots first and then asks questions later,” then told Jennings “I don’t think India with its over a billion people is an insignificant country for trading purposes.”
When Jennings defended the point, Roginsky repeatedly told him to “stop”:
PHILLIP: And why all the chaos? I mean, why not have a strategy that addresses all of those things, the things that you talked about and you talked about, and do that on the front end as opposed to trying to back your way into it when you’ve — I mean, effectively, this is Trump having put a gun against his own head and is sort of like he is the one who’s created this time pressure for himself.
SINGLETON: I mean, one possibility that I think the president could potentially explore as it pertains to a strategy would be similar to what we did with the National Highway System. Maybe start now and say, I won’t be president by the time we conclude this, but for the next eight years, I’m going to work with Congress to appropriate the necessary funding to begin the process of building out that manufacturing, to make sure that the investment is there so we can invest in American infrastructure and, again, not being reliant on an adversary.
We’ve seen what China is doing. They fly their jets close to our fire fighter power jets — fighter pilot jets. They get their ships close to our ships.
JENNINGS: They send balloons over our country.
SINGLETON: I mean, I don’t know, even if we get over this tariff conflict, Abby, if we can really trust the Chinese to be honest in their dealings with us going forward.
And so at some point, if it’s not Trump, somebody in this country is going to have to say, we just cannot be reliant on a country that we may be in a military conflict in the next ten years.
ROGINSKY: Shermichael, that’s absolutely a great strategy, and if you were a president, I would hope you would initiate it. The problem is that’s not the president we have in the Oval Office right now. The president we have in the Oval Office right now is somebody who shoots first and then asks questions later.
And to your point, Scott, I would say I don’t think India with its over a billion people is an insignificant country for trading purposes. I don’t think the U.K., and especially the E.U, which it’s no longer a part of, isn’t a significant trading country. Their economy is —
JENNINGS: Do you think they’re more significant than the United States?
ROGINSKY: I don’t think they’re more significant, but I think —
JENNINGS: We’re the most significant country. We’re the world’s superpower.
ROGINSKY: No, Scott, stop the jingoism!
JENNINGS: We’re the world’s superpower.
ROGINSKY: Let me — stop with the jingoism!
JENNINGS: Dealing with us is the most important thing anyone can do.
ROGINSKY: Stop! Do you think that China can do just as well with the E.U.? Do you think that China can do just as well with India?
JENNINGS: If I were the E.U., I would not want to be reliant — and look what’s happened to us. They don’t want it.
ROGINSKY: It’s not a question of reliance. It’s a question on the fact that everybody’s cutting deals with each other. We’re not cutting deals with anybody.
Watch above via CNN NewsNight.
