CNN’s Scott Jennings Challenges JD Vance to Separate Himself From Those ‘Trafficking in Hate’

CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings encouraged Vice President JD Vance to separate himself from members of the MAGA movement who are  “trafficking in hate and conspiracies” for their own social gain.

In an appearance on The Arena with Kasie Hunt on Monday afternoon, CNN anchor Kasie Hunt pressed Jennings on the extent to which conservative figures like Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson will be permitted to represent the MAGA movement going forward, particularly if Vance becomes the Republican nominee in 2028.

“There is a divergence of interests in terms of conflict cells and whether the Megyn Kellys and Tucker Carlsons of the world, whether, again, MAGA and the people who are running for office asking to represent the American people, are willing to tolerate having these people who are fundamentally out to make money, often to shock, often to create conflict, are they going to be allowed to speak for the MAGA movement?” Hunt asked. “Again, I think that the elected officials who want to represent Americans across the country need to say with a clear voice, ‘We don’t tolerate this. This is not the kind of language that we’re going to tolerate in our party.'”

Jennings agreed with Hunt overall. He recently criticized the public tension within the Republican party, such as the on-stage clash between Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson at Turning Point USA over the Israel-Gaza conflict.

“I don’t disagree with you,” he said. “I think ultimately it will be up to the nominee of the party, most likely JD Vance, to basically say, who’s in my group and who’s out, and to separate himself from people who are trafficking in hate and conspiracy theories. I would just draw you back to the straw poll results from, I mean, there was thousands upon thousands of people clearly stood with Israel, clearly believed radical Islam is the top issue facing the United States. So, the debate happening on the stage was one thing. There really wasn’t that much of a debate in the crowd. I think some of the civil war talk is a bit of a mirage. When you actually look at the results of the polling among the people in the stands.”

Hunt pushed Jennings further, calling out some of the concerning public rhetoric stoking the flames of anti-Semitism.

“Well, do you think that saying radical Islam is the greatest threat automatically means support for Israel?” Hunt asked. “I mean, because, there is like this white Christian nationalism situation also, that is where some of this anti-Semitism comes out of.”

Jennings responded with direct condemnation of Carlson for his hand in making tensions within the Republican Party overblown.

“Well, look, Tucker was on the stage attacking Republicans who were up there saying, ‘We have to worry about radical Islam,'” Jennings said. “He was kind of defending it up there. That wasn’t where the crowd was at all. And so I think some of the people who are dabbling in some of these things that I think are wrong, they don’t have as much support among the people in that crowd as they think they do now. I think you might be right that they see benefit to it and growing an online audience, but in that arena, I think that arena is much more where Charlie [Kirk] was, much more where Ben is, than where some of these conspiracy provocateurs are.”

Watch above via CNN.