Scott Jennings Mocks CNN Political Analyst for Warning Iran War Making Life ‘Worse’ for Americans
CNN’s MAGA pundit Scott Jennings mocked the network’s political analyst Josh Rogin for listing out the ways he believed that President Donald Trump’s conflict with Iran was making life “worse every day” for normal Americans.
The clash came on Thursday as CNN NewsNight’s panel discussed the ongoing conflict which began when the U.S. and Israel launched sweeping strikes on Iran on February 28, targeting missile infrastructure, military sites and senior leadership.
The initial wave of attacks killed Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, along with senior regime figures.
Iran has since retaliated with attacks on Israel and U.S.-aligned states in the Gulf, with the violence quickly spreading to Lebanon, but attacks on energy infrastructure in neighboring nations shuttered the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint that has spiked the price of oil in global markets.
The Trump administration has offered several timelines for how long the operation may last and created uncertainty about overall objectives, added to the complicating situation around energy.
Jennings began by sparring with Rogin for calling the conflict a “war” — insisting the country hadn’t been to war since World War II — and attacked the analyst’s claim that U.S. involvement would be “prolonged”:
JOSH ROGIN: This is the most unpopular war in American history, and for good reason. And the longer it goes on, the worse those numbers are going to look. There is no instance in history of prolonged war benefitting any nation. And the-
SCOTT JENNINGS: How do you know it’s going to be prolonged?
ROGIN: Well-
BAKARI SELLERS: We don’t know it’s not, and that’s the problem.
ROGIN: Because that’s the story of pretty much every war ever since Venezuela
JENNINGS: How long did the Venezuela war last?
ROGIN: Well, that wasn’t a war. That was a-
JENNINGS: We haven’t had a war since World War II, Josh.
ROGIN: Yeah, well I think the Vietnam generation would take issue with that officially. And the Iraq generation and the Afghanistan generation.
JENNINGS: Officially! Officially! I’m saying we haven’t declared war.
ROGIN: Yeah. But if you ignore the lessons of all of those wars-
JENNINGS: You’re saying a three-week situation is the most unpopular thing we’ve ever done. Using the term war, a little gentle –
ROGIN: I’m saying that Americans understand what’s clear, which is that this is getting worse every day and expanding every day.
JENNINGS: What is getting worse?
ROGIN: The war is expanding, more countries are getting attacked, energy crisis is growing, the economic crisis is growing, inflation is growing, extremism and attacks on the homeland are growing. Everything is getting worse every day. And the war is expanding. Despite President Trump saying–
JENNINGS: You’re not exactly a glass half full kind of guy, are you?
ROGIN: I’m real.
Co-panelist Bakari Sellers cut in to further Rogin’s point, slamming Jennings and using recent comments by GOP candidate for Senate in Minnesota and former sportscaster, Michele Tafoya, as an example, after she called on Americans to simply cut back on daily expenses.
“I think right now, at least just kind of keeping a stiff upper lip, maybe you take one less trip to Starbucks and so that gas goes a little further, until this thing is over and these gas prices come back down again,” Tafoya told conservative radio host Todd Starnes earlier this week. “Let’s just try to be patriots about this.”
Invoking those remarks, Sellers said: “There are a lot of things getting worse, that people who are not sitting around this table are in this studio, feel every single day. And I think that the problem is that when Scott, when you call it a situation or when Michele Tafoya compares it to a Starbucks cup of coffee people, people really turn off from that.”
He added: “She says things like, take one less cup of coffee and you see the coffin come back of the gentleman and his family running up that’s shrouded in the American flag, you know that is not worth just a cup of coffee.”
“Like, when is Washington, D.C., Going to wake up? I think is my argument. My argument is not with Scott Jennings. My argument is with people in Washington, D.C.,” he concluded.
Watch above via CNN.
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