Scott Jennings and CNN Analyst Battle Over Trump Shutdown of LGBTQ Suicide Hotline: ‘So You’re Admitting It’s Political?!’
CNN conservative commentator Scott Jennings threw down with analyst SE Cupp over President Donald Trump’s administration cutting an LGBTQ-focused suicide hotline service.
The federal government will no longer be offering specialized support for LGBTQ callers as part of its national suicide hotline service. The government is however maintaining funding for its 988 suicide hotline service.
On CNN Saturday Morning Table for Five, Jennings noted that the national suicide hotline service remains available and argued that “no service” is being cut. Jennings noted the administration has a problem with the “ideology” of the Trevor Project, the nonprofit that ran the specific service.
“So you’re admitting it’s political?” Cupp asked Jennings.
“I’m admitting that what they did is cut ties with the Trevor Project and keep the 9-8-8 service open so anyone can call that. So I don’t see that any services have been cut. They are against this Trevor Project, I guess, that has been operating this particular silo but you can still call the thing and talk to someone,” Jennings said.
“But a service is being cut,” Cupp said.
The battle between the pair led to crosstalk and Jennings saying with a laugh, “It’s your favorite thing to do, interrupt me and then say I’m interrupting you.”
Fellow panelist Van Jones argued the administration should find a different group to run the service, and Dan Koh, former Deputy White House Cabinet Secretary, called it another “gut punch” from Trump. Meanwhile, guest host Sara Sidner wanted to know whether “cruelty” is “the point” of cuts – echoing the common Democrat refrain that when Republicans cut spending or projects, it’s not about the money but instead about inflicting suffering due to inherent evil.
Check out the full exchange below:
JENNINGS: Well, a couple things. Number one, as you pointed out, the hotline, the 9-8-8 service still exists. That’s number one. Number two, the only thing happening here is that they’re cutting ties with this group, the Trevor Project, which a lot of conservatives have problems with because of the way they handle some of their interactions with youth who call them and the ideology that they push out.
CUPP: So you’re admitting it’s political?
JENNINGS: I’m admitting that what they did is cut ties with the Trevor Project and keep the 9-8-8 service open so anyone can call that. So I don’t see that any services have been cut. They are against this Trevor Project, I guess, that has been operating this particular silo but you can still call the thing and talk to someone.
CUPP: But a service is being cut. A specific service where—
JENNINGS: No, you can literally call the 9-8-8 hotline.
CUPP: Where if you’re LGBTQ, you don’t get then transferred to someone who, let me finish, to someone—
JENNINGS: You interrupted me, but go ahead.
CUPP: No, to someone who is—
JENNINGS: And it’s your favorite thing to do, interrupt me and then say I’m interrupting you, but go ahead.
CUPP: No, no — who is a member of the community and can speak to these issues to a group of people who are disenfranchised, in many cases ashamed, and don’t feel comfortable talking about their depression, their suicide, their sexuality to their parents, to their friends, to their teachers. This was a lifeline for a very specific group of people who have very few people. If I called in, I could talk to basically anyone, that’s true. But this is a group of people who needs a certain kind of advisor and counselor to understand the unique problems that they are confronting. And so this just feels cruel and as you said, political.
SIDNER: Is cruelty the point? Is it a feature or a bug?
JONES: Well, look, I don’t know. And I would love to know what’s wrong with this Trevor Project. Here’s what I would say. If there is something wrong with the Trevor Project, they should find a different group to give these young people special help, because it really is the case. I mean, I grew up in rural West Tennessee on the edge of a small town. Things haven’t changed that much. And so I think that if you don’t like one service provider, you can find another. When you don’t find the other, then it seems like you’re just picking on this group.
KOH: It’s just yet another gut punch to a population that candidly has been abandoned by both sides of the aisle these days because it’s politically expedient. It speaks to a larger point though of these things that Trump is doing that get outshined by some of the bigger news items, things like the personnel director still hasn’t submitted his background check, but no one’s really paying attention to it, him talking about phasing out FEMA or Stephen Miller saying that there may be some conditions of patriotism to the Department of Education dollars that may be going to states. It’s a trend from the Trump administration we should all be concerned about.
Watch above via CNN.
