‘Why Is He Talking to You?’ Scott Jennings Pressed On Why McConnell Gives Him Health Updates

CNN’s Scott Jennings provided a new health update on Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and he was quickly pressed by his colleagues on why McConnell will speak to him, but not a news organization.

On CNN’s The Arena on Tuesday, Jennings once again declined to call McConnell, 84, on the air as others pressed him. According to the political commentator and radio host, he spoke to McConnell by phone that day.

Jennings said:

He called me directly from his phone today. Now you have to understand, I’ve known him since I was 16, 17 years old. So we’ve had a relationship for a long time. I worked on a lot of his campaigns over the years, so it’s not unusual for us to chat. But in today’s case, he was really up on the campaigns. He’s a political operative at heart. We talked a lot about the Michigan Senate race. We talked about Maine a little bit, talked about just the map in general.

CNN contributor Lulu Garcia-Navarro asked Jennings why McConnell is able to have phone chats with him, but doesn’t call a “credible news organization,” while anchor Pamela Brown pushed for him to call the senator “right now.”

“Scott, why isn’t he calling in to a credible news organization? I mean, why is he talking to you and not talking to —” Garcia-Navarro began before Jennings jumped in.

“You’re saying it’s not credible to call me?” he said, laughing.

She said it was “totally credible,” but noted criticism the senator is facing for the second-hand updates and asked, “Why isn’t he calling into even one that he would consider friendly like Fox News? I mean I guess that’s the prevailing question.”

Jennings argued that McConnell is from a generation that is very “private” about their health.

“My view of him and frankly, my belief about males of that generation is that they’re intensely private, to be honest. He’s always been a little private about his own personal health care. You know, he’s a Polio survivor and one of the issues that he’s had over time is weakness in his legs. I think that’s part of what’s going on here and part of the conditioning that he is having to go through right now,” Jennings said.

Brown pressed further and asked if Jennings had asked McConnell to at least call into his radio show to give an update.

“I hope that he will call into my radio show. I’ve had him on before and I’m hoping to have him on as we get closer to win the Senate,” Jennings said.

He also claimed McConnell is “aware” of all the media attention and concern his health is causing and said the senator finds it “frustrating.”

“He told me today, he said, it was like, ‘I know this is unusual circumstances. I’m sitting here. The doctors tell me I don’t have any life-threatening issues. It must seem rather strange.’ So yeah, I got the feeling he’s somewhat aware of it and frankly, somewhat frustrated by it,” he said.

Jennings previously described chats with McConnell, whom he’s described as a mentor, but McConnell has yet to speak to any press. His team released a couple of photos from his hospital stay, but there have been no direct updates by phone or through video from the senator himself.

McConnell was hospitalized in June after a fall that caused him to lose consciousness at his Washington, D.C. home. McConnell announced through a statement last week that he’s returned home after the lengthy hospital stay.

Watch above via CNN.

Jason Cohen contributed to this report. 

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