CNN’s Scott Jennings Hits Back At Bill Maher Over Trump ‘Uphold The Constitution’ Flap
CNN GOP analyst Scott Jennings pushed back on Bill Maher when he attacked President Donald Trump over his response in an interview about whether he had a duty to “uphold the constitution.”
On Friday night’s edition of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, the interview guest was Gen. Stanley McChrystal, retired four-star Army general and author of the book “On Character: Choices That Define a Life.”
The panel guests were Scott Jennings, CNN senior political contributor and author of the upcoming book “A Revolution of Common Sense: How Donald Trump Stormed Washington and Fought for Western Civilization”; and Peter Hamby, host of Snapchat’s “Good Luck America.”
In a discussion of the breaking Supreme Court news, Maher brought up a response Trump gave during an interview with Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker. Trump said “I don’t know” when asked directly whether he needs to uphold the U.S. Constitution.
But Jennings responded by reading out the remainder of the exchange:
BILL MAHER: I mean, maybe it should. But that’s not what we’re talking about. We’re saying, what does it say? I mean, if you were the founding fathers and you were writing the Fifth Amendment, or the Fourteenth Amendment, because both of them use the word person.
They knew the difference between the word person and the word citizen. It says no person. Shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process. That’s the fifth amendment. The 14th says, no state shall deprive any person of life, liberty, property without due process.
So, isn’t it clear? I mean, you talk about creative means, but creative can just… Kind of morph right into, we’re just going to do whatever I want. And I don’t think, as you said, those polling numbers even among Republicans. I don’t think they want to live in a country where a guy just goes… You know, you’re a bad dude. You go to torture chamber.
SCOTT JENNINGS: Well, that’s not the country they live in. They live in a country where this guy had been to immigration court repeatedly. But the Venezuelans… He had a deportation… But the Venezuela…
PETER HAMBY: But the Venezuelans they’re talking about in this case, the Supreme Court spoke on today. Trump wants to send them to El Salvador. They’re not from El Salvador.
BILL MAHER: I mean, Trump was asked, do you have a duty to uphold the Constitution? And his answer was, I don’t know, I’m not a lawyer.
SCOTT JENNINGS: Wait, wait, wait. He in the same, but in the, but the same breath he said “On this case we have the best lawyers and we’re going to abide by what the Supreme Court said.”.
That was what his full statement was.
These people, these gang members, are not coming here to be productive. Americans they are coming here to rape pillage murder steal and wreak havoc on communities the president was elected to fix it.
I believe him when he says he’s going to abide by Supreme Court decisions. But I don’t think most people begrudge him creative ideas when it comes to getting them out when they’ve been allowed to stay here for so long.
BILL MAHER: They don’t begrudge him a lot of ideas. I don’t even begrudge them a lot of ideas like that. I don’t want gangs in this country either. Or you know, was there bloat in the government? Or USA aid, maybe there was some corruption. It’s the way he does it. It’s this… It’s the wrecking ball nature.
Watch above via HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher.
