Scott Jennings and Ana Navarro Throw Down Over Trump Tattoo Claim: ‘Are You a Tattoo Truther?!’

The panel on CNN News Night got contentious yet again when Scott Jennings and Ana Navarro sparred over President Donald Trump’s claims during a recent interview about tattoos on a migrant who was sent to a prison in El Salvador.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported in March and sent to the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, abbreviated CECOT, a notorious maximum security prison established by El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele that is well-documented to be a cesspool of human rights abuses. In multiple court filings, at least three separate Trump administration officials have conceded that Abrego Garcia had been mistakenly deported because of an “administrative error.”

Abrego Garcia has never been convicted or even charged with a crime, although he has been arrested and had other encounters with law enforcement over the years. The federal judges who have issued rulings on the case thus far have found the government’s arguments that he is a member of the MS-13 gang flimsy, and have ruled that he is entitled to due process.

Still, the Trump administration has insisted he is a member of MS-13, and have been arguing that photos of some of his tattoos represent symbols that indicate membership in the gang. During a recent Oval Office press conference, Trump held up a photo showing the tattoos on Abrego Garcia’s knuckles — a marijuana leaf, a smiley face, a cross, and a skull — and “M S 1 3” had been typed along the top of the image.

During an interview Tuesday evening with ABC News’ Terry Moran, Trump was asked about the Abrego Garcia case and the president mentioned the photo, leading to an unusual exchange in which he seemed to take the added “M S 1 3” letters literally, like they were really part of the man’s tattoos. Trump repeatedly declared that Abrego Garcia “had MS-13” tattooed on his hand and Moran kept trying to correct him, saying it was added or photoshopped, but the president would not be dissuaded.

This came up during Wednesday’s episode of News Night as the panel discussed the case.

Jennings, a Republican strategist who frequently provides bombastic support for Trump on the program, argued that Abrego Garcia’s defenders were “passionately arguing…to re-import a dangerous member of a transnational terrorist organization who has clear affiliations with a gang that commits heinous atrocities.”

(Again, whether or not Abrego Garcia is in a gang has not actually been proven in court; his lawyers are arguing that he has due process rights and the government needs to make these arguments in court.)

“The politics of this could not be worse for the left and worse for Democrats, because the president knows he was elected to protect us from MS-13,” Jennings added, “and that is what they are doing.”

“Yeah, but none of the things you just said have been proven in court,” Navarro said.

“What do you — what do you say about the tattoos?” Jennings said.

“I say that what Trump said yesterday was an absolute lie,” Navarro said, as another panelist just off camera interjected that the tattoos were “photoshopped.”

“They’re not, they’re not, they’re not photoshopped,” Jennings said.

Navarro tapped along her knuckles as she spelled out the gang name: “Are you saying the ‘M S 1 3’ that Donald Trump claims are legitimate tattoos on this guy, are true? Are you saying the photoshop is true?”

“Are you a tattoo truther?” Jennings fired back at her. “I mean, I don’t understand –”

“Are you a photoshop denier?” Navarro retorted.

At this point, anchor Abby Phillip cut off the spiraling discussion. “Hold on,” she said. “We are getting away from the issue.”

“Scott,” Phillip continued, “the picture of his knuckles does not say MS-13 –”

“The symbols!” Jennings interjected with a scoffing tone.

“Okay, yeah, let me just explain to people,” said Phillip.

“That has not been proven either, Scott. None of the things you have said, they have not said in court –” Navarro cut in.

“Hold on, hold on, guys,” Phillip tried again. “So let me just explain to people what we’re talking about here. There are symbols on his knuckles. None of them say ‘MS-13’. However, this administration has decided that they symbolize something related to MS-13, which is disputed by a lot of people.”

The panel erupted in crosstalk at this point with some people saying “it’s disputed!” and others saying it wasn’t.

“I am going to move on,” said Phillip, and she did go to the next topic.

Watch the clip above via CNN.