PIPE DOWN

CNN Host Scolds Scott Jennings in Awkward On-Air Moment

Host Laura Coates had to step in to shut the MAGA pundit up.

Scott Jennings got a scolding live on air as he tried to defend President Donald Trump’s war with Iran.

CNN’s token MAGA pundit, 48, got heated as he argued with Democratic strategist Mike Nellis about the war’s impact on the cost of living on Laura Coates Live.

Coates pointed out that Republicans like Mike Rogers, the former Michigan representative now running for Senate, have begun speaking out against the war despite previously supporting it as high prices threaten their chances in the midterms.

“Scott, Republicans had a lot of chances to speak out earlier if they felt this way, and they did not. Do you think voters will view their statements as of now as disingenuous or an evolution of thought?” Coates asked.

Jennings argued that Republicans voted for Trump precisely because they wanted him to close the border, cut taxes, shrink the government, and “make sure that enemies of the United States like Iran don’t acquire nuclear weapons to threaten us with.”

“He’s doing the things that Republicans elected him to do,” Jennings added, before declaring a premature victory in the war against Iran.

“We have oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz that’s approaching pre-war levels. Uh, we have a defeated enemy that has no Navy, no Air Force, no army, no defense industrial complex, and no leader that’s ever been seen in public,” he said. “By any historic measurement, these people are defeated. And I think Mike Rogers—who comes, by the way, from a law enforcement and military background—he knows what a defeated enemy looks like when he sees one.”

Nellis delivered a blunt reality check for Jennings.

“We have not defeated Iran,” he countered. “The Strait of Hormuz is not open. If the Strait of Hormuz was open, we would be seeing gas prices and diesel prices come down, and that would be a relief to the average American. You’re not seeing that right now.”

The remarks set off Jennings, who repeatedly talked over his fellow guest as he insisted that “millions of barrels of oil are flying through the strait,” prompting Coates to step in.

“Scott, let him respond. You had a chance to make your case; you did. Mike, respond,” the anchor instructed her guests.

But just as Nellis began to speak, Jennings talked over him again.

“Why am I still hearing you, Scott?” Coates asked, visibly frustrated. “Mike, I’m sorry. Restart. Scott, I can’t hear him—please stop. Mike, finish your point. Go ahead.”

Jennings kept his lips pursed and his gaze down as Nellis concluded his argument.

“The American people are not buying into it anymore,” he said of Trump’s claims about the war. “And more importantly, their lives are significantly worse than they were six to eight months ago. And that’s why the Republican Party’s in trouble.”

See more of our coverage in your search results.

ADD THE DAILY BEAST ON GOOGLE

Julia OrnedoReporter

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.