David Axelrod Throws Down With Scott Jennings Over Trump’s Kennedy Center Antics: ‘Do You Think That’s Appropriate?’

CNN’s David Axelrod and Scott Jennings duked it out on Tuesday over President Donald Trump’s response to a federal judge blocking his name being added to the Kennedy Center.

On CNN’s The Arena, Axelrod repeatedly asked Jennings whether the president’s response to the ruling was “appropriate.”

In a Truth Social post, Trump said that “the Renovation and Reconstruction, which is a very large and complex job, cannot begin until such time as the D.C. Circuit rules on the Board’s approved name.” The Kennedy Center’s board has voted to shut down after the ruling from Judge Christopher Cooper, an Obama appointee on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

“Can I just ask you, do you think it’s appropriate for him to — if he believes the building really needs to be renovated, is it appropriate for him to close it down, deprive people of the opportunity to use it, and not begin the reparations until they let him put his name on the bill? Do you think that’s appropriate?” Axelrod asked Jennings.

“I don’t know if I agree with your characterization of that. He has been calling for and trying to renovate this place,” Jennings said.

“He said it today! That’s what he said!” Axelrod fired back.

He asked after some crosstalk, “He said today he will not begin reparations until they allow him to put his name on the building. Do you think that’s appropriate?”

“He’s gonna fight it out,” Jennings said. “I don’t know what’s gonna happen. It doesn’t sound like they’re gonna let him do it. It’s how he feels about it. I don’t personally care about this myself. It’s just how he feel about it, I do know this. He thinks the building ought to be renovated someday and I think there’s a lot of evidence that it needs to be.”

Axelrod, a former Obama advisor, finished out the argument by taking another swipe at the president.

“But at the end of the day, what it doesn’t do is lower people’s costs or deal with the fundamental challenges in their lives that they sent him here to deal with,” he said.

Watch above via CNN.

Jason Cohen contributed to this report.

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