‘We’re Treating Alex Jones Like a Credible Voice?’ Scott Jennings Blows Up on CNN for Promoting Crackpots’ Criticism of Trump

CNN’s Scott Jennings lashed out at his own network for amplifying conspiracy theorists and crackpots’ criticism of President Donald Trump during a testy Wednesday evening exchange with John King.

After playing clips of various figures inveighing against the United States’ war with Iran, King prompted Jennings by saying, “Scott, you may not agree with all those voices, but there are a lot of Trump voters out in America who listen to them. Maybe not all of them, but some listen to Tucker [Carlson], some listen to Megyn [Kelly], some to Joe Rogan, some still listen to Alex Jones. This is going to hurt.”

“I mean, we’re treating Alex Jones like a credible voice here. We’re treating Tucker Carlson like a credible voice. We were playing-,”

“I don’t consider Alex Jones a credible voice, but there are people-, you travel the country and talk to Trump voters who do,” interjected King.

“Okay, so let’s just say you’re right, and some people listen to them. Who do you think they listen to more: those people or President Donald Trump? I know what the polling says, and I know my instincts tell me is that Donald Trump runs the party, runs the country, not the podcasters. They’re welcome to have opinions, and I don’t begrudge anybody having an opinion. And you could have a different opinion than Donald Trump. But I know who has more influence over the Republican Party and the conservative movement, and there’s no doubt about it. And there has never been any doubt about it — really all that much for the last 10 years. So. Their opinions are fine, but the person in charge right now was in charge, is in charge, and will be in charge until he leaves office,” shot back Jennings.

After reading a tweet from Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich, King again asked Jennings about the pushback from MAGA influencers.

“I hear people saying every day that this is exactly what they voted for. They voted for a commander-in-chief to restore American strength on the world stage. They voted a commander-in-chief to keep Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. They voted the commander-in-chief who would do what the seven previous presidents would not do, and that’s deal with these people with a firm hand,” submitted Jennings.

Later in the conversation, King cited tweets from anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist Candace Owens and CNN regular Marjorie Taylor Greene — who recently railed against “Jewish billionaires” — as still more examples of an alleged MAGA revolt.

Before he could ask a question, Jennings cut in with one of his own.

“You think there’s a single average Republican voter out there, if you went out and knocked on their door tonight and said, ‘Yes or no, should we let podcasters and Democrats remove Donald Trump by the 25th Amendment?’ You’d be thrown off of every porch in America.”

The pair continued:

KING: Let me flip it just a little bit, because I agree with you that the overwhelming majority of Trump voters will listen to Trump. I don’t think there’s any question. However, Trump has benefited enormously, enormously, from having an echo chamber, having allies that include all of those people, alright? Part of his success has been because of that. They’ve brought him into unconventional places in the electorate. They’ve bought out people who didn’t vote before. If now they’re-, they’ve helped him, you’re shaking your head, you’re one of them! You have a podcast now. It helps if people are echoing the president and saying he’s right. If they have influence with his voters, it cannot help when they say he’s wrong.

JENNINGS: I don’t deny the usefulness of having surrogates and allies, but I think you’re oversubscribing their importance, and undersubscribing the importance of Trump himself. And I think, frankly, the only reason we’re playing them on our air right now is because they’re useful to a narrative. We don’t consider these people to be credible at any other time until they are attacking Donald Trump. Otherwise we call them crazy! Otherwise we’d call them crazy!

KING: No, I’m being very careful about it, because I said I don’t view Alex Jones as credible. I don’t view Tucker Carlson as credible, or as a conservative anyways. However, I do travel the country and talk to a lot of Trump voters who listen to these people. And I respect them and their choices. And they do listen to them. I’m not saying they side with them, but-

JENNINGS: I’m not disagreeing they listen, I’m not disagreeing they listen, but again, I would just say, listening to someone and taking their word for everything over Donald Trump every-, I just disagree with that.

Watch above via CNN.

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