CNN international anchor and business correspondent Richard Quest torpedoed colleague Scott Jennings on-air when Jennings claimed “I’m just a journalist” as they clashed over President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
On Wednesday’s edition of CNN NewsNight, anchor Abby Phillip hosted a panel that included Quest, Jennings, Shermichael Singleton, Amanda Berman, and Chuck Rocha.
As Quest pushed back on Jennings over the effects of Trump’s tariffs, Jennings made the aside that earned Quest’s rebuke — and which Phillip called “a bit of a stretch”:
ABBY PHILLIP: Richard, The Wall Street Journal described this as a weird GDP report because there’s a lot of stuff inside the numbers. Headline number is good, but what do you see on the inside?RICHARD QUEST, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Oh, the GDP number was weird because the previous number was greatly affected by imports, all those importers trying to get stuff into the United States before the tariff barriers came down. And so the previous number was off, this number. It’s called — don’t get me wrong, it is a good number, but it can’t be necessarily taken to the bank just yet.We do not know the full effects of the tariffs yet. We — to put this in perspective, pre-Donald Trump, the average U.S. tariff was 3 percent. Today, the average U.S. tariff is 17 percent, which is the highest level
since Smoot-Hawley in the 1920s and 30s.Now, we cannot know at this point exactly how that’s going to play out, which is why the Fed held interest rates as they — there are two dissenters, yes, two dissenters, I’ll give you that, but they held for the time being simply because, as Jerome Powell says, we just don’t know.SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I would just like to go — I’d like to build a DeLorean and go back to April when everybody here was predicting likely to cause a recession, investment stops when a recession happens. They’re not talking about a U.S. recession, they’re talking about a global recession.PHILLIP: What was happening in April, Scott?JENNINGS: Lead to recession. Eventually, they’re being a recession.(CROSSTALKS)QUEST: Just a second, Scott.JENNINGS: You saw — you called the recession. You called a — you took your shoe off.QUEST: You like to see that again?JENNINGS: You took your shoe off, you brought cookies out.QUEST: 15 percent.JENNINGS: You took your shoe off and you said there was going to be a recession. GDP is 3 percent.QUEST: It’s too early to give a final verdict.PHILLIP: All right. Scott –QUEST: It’s too early — just a second, Abby. He’s basically calling me calling me out here. It’s tooearly to give a final verdict on the tariffs. You may wish to, but at the moment, it can’t be said what the long-term effect is going to be.JENNINGS: I am just a journalist–QUEST: No you’re not!JENNINGS: –and all I can do is read the economic data.PHILLIP: It’s a bit of a stretch.JENNINGS: 3 percent GDP, trade deals, record high in the stock, cooling inflation.QUEST: These trade deals are garbage.PHILLIP: It’s actually much simpler.JENNIGNS: Garbage?QUEST: Yes.
Watch above via CNN NewsNight.