MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell spent an entire minute on Monday raging at CNN for employing political commentator Scott Jennings to offer a conservative perspective on the network.
O’Donnell claimed that CNN has “compromised” itself by paying Jennings to supposedly “lie” about President Donald Trump on the network. He accused Jennings of turning into a so-called “rabid, lying Trump supporter” and of becoming the “J.D. Vance of CNN.”
“Scott Jennings, who used to be an aide to Senator Mitch McConnell, was not always a rabid, lying Trump supporter. When he first started appearing on television, he was capable of criticizing some of the more extreme Trump positions,” O’Donnell said. “But Scott Jennings figured out where the money is and how he could get his own podcast and decided to become the J.D. Vance of CNN.”
O’Donnell suggested that Jennings’ appearance is driving down the ratings on “CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip.” The show, however, is often ranked as one of the network’s most-watched programs.
“The show that Scott Jennings frequents the most is on opposite this program,” O’Donnell said. “And that show on a good night gets half, half of the audience of this show. This program usually has an audience triple the size of the terrible, terrible television that Scott Jennings is delivering on the absurdly degraded version of CNN presided over by the man who thinks lying for Donald Trump on TV is an honorable pursuit and should be paid for by CNN.”
Jennings has become a household name across the U.S. for often being outnumbered by liberal panelists and disputing several of their left-wing narratives. In one segment, Jennings shut down talk show host Montel Williams’ argument that Tyler Robinson, the alleged assassin of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, who claimed that he murdered Kirk out of love for his transgender boyfriend.
Jennings has also defended Elon Musk following accusations that he displayed a Nazi salute, reminded Phillip on Thursday that Democratic New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani took a photo with an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, and has defended Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
READ: CNN Panel Erupts: Van Jones ‘Trying Not To Vomit’ After Advisor’s Effusive Trump Praise
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