‘What a Punk!’ Chris Cuomo Unloads on Former CNN Colleague Scott Jennings for On-Air Freakout

NewsNation host Chris Cuomo let fly on former CNN colleague Scott Jennings on Tuesday, days after Jennings erupted at a fellow panelist.

On Thursday’s installment of CNN NewsNight, Adam Mockler of MeidasTouch mixed it up with Jennings, a former White House staffer in the George W. Bush administration, over the war with Iran.

“We all know that Scott Jennings is more than happy to defend a war with a country that starts with letters ‘I-r-a’ that we are currently failing, that is going to put us trillions and trillions of dollars more in debt,” Mockler said. “I was only a few years old while you were in the administration defending prior endless wars. Now this war is failing.”

At one point, Jennings, who compared Mockler to a gnat, told Mockler, “Get your f*cking hand out of my face!” (Mockler’s hand did not appear to be particularly close to Jennings’ face.)

On Tuesday’s Cuomo, the host called Jennings “CNN’s resident MAGA-lomaniac” and aired the clip in question.

“Now, when this happened, I asked, what 48-year-old man talks to a kid 25 years younger than him like that?” Cuomo said. “One who’s got nothing else. When one who did work for the Bush administration that sold us the BS about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, you’d think he’d have some type of shame. But there’s no shame in the game, and he knows how to play the rage bait game.”

Cuomo said Jennings has a history of aggressively gesticulating on NewsNight.

“My proof? Jennings himself did the same thing Mockler did to him to another guest,” the host said. “And here are the receipts.”

Cuomo then aired a clip of Jennings arguing with academic Michael Eric Dyson during a 2024 October episode of NewsNight. At one point, an agitated Jennings told Dyson, “I don’t answer to you,” while pointing his finger at Dyson’s face and lunging at him.

“You put your finger in my face, and you are aggressive,” Dyson replied. Jennings told Dyson, who is Black, “Brother, don’t start with me.”

As he delivered the line, Jennings leaned back with his arms folded.

Back in the present day, Cuomo mocked the posture and laughed.

“What a punk!” he said. “He did the same thing. You see what I’m saying? What’s different is Professor Michael Eric Dyson, the man on your screen, looking at him with contempt. Why? He handled it differently because he has a better handle on adulting than Jennings, but also because he had the facts and the law on his side.”

Later in the program, Cuomo interviewed Mockler, who said Jennings is “a big a**hole on that show.”

Watch above via NewsNation.

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