‘Had to Flee!?’ CNN’s Scott Jennings Brawls With Colleagues Over Texas Gerrymandering Fight

CNN’s Scott Jennings brawled with his fellow panelists over Texas Republicans’ efforts to redraw the Lone Star State’s congressional districts on Tuesday night.

After one panelist argued that calls for the FBI to arrest Democrats in the Texas House of Representatives — who have camped out in Illinois to deny Republicans the quorum needed to take action — are misguided, Jennings interjected to suggest that “They should go to work, should they not? I mean, they got elected to represent people in Texas, not people in Illinois.”

That kickstarted his first testy exchange with Julie Roginsky, who asked Jennings why congressional Republicans “abandon[ed] the House to not vote on these Epstein files?”

“It’s the August recess, and if you’re comparing these two, once again you’re showing just how dishonest you’re willing to be,” argued Jennings as the pair attempted to talk over each other. “The reality is they got elected to go to work in the Texas State Capitol, they’ve left the state, they’re abandoning their constituents, and if they want to go vote against the map, that’s fine. But running off to Illinois, the most gerrymandered state in the country. I mean, I understand no one in the PR Department at the Texas House Democratic Conference must have been at work that day, but it looks horrific for them.”

A number of panelists objected before his colleague Xochitl Hinojosa got the floor.

“I want to speak to this because in full disclosure, my sister was one of the people who fled to Illinois who’s a state representative in Austin,” she began. “And what I will say about that is that they had to flee. They don’t have control-”

“Had to flee?” asked an incredulous Jennings, who wondered aloud if they were “in danger.”

“Let me tell you, they don’t have control of the House, or the Senate, or the governor’s mansion, or anything in Texas. But what I will say is that Republicans are trying to take away districts, and on the backs of Latino and African American voters in the state. And there are several districts in South Texas where I was born and raised on the border, Houston, Austin, where they are trying to dilute the Latino vote,” continued Hinojosa. “And so yes, I think it is right for the Texas legislators to get up and go. This is not their-, the only reason they’re doing this is for political purpose purposes, and Trump has said himself over, and over, and over that he is only doing this because he wants to pick up seats for the midterm elections.”

“At minimum it’s childish, and it might be criminal,” submitted Jennings.

Watch above via CNN.

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