CNN panelists' on-air fight over DC takeover ends with tawdry ‘nightly' bedroom smear involving Trump
appeared on NewsNight with Abby Phillip on Wednesday evening to discuss Trump's federal takeover of Washington and deployment of the National Guard after the president declared a 'crime emergency.'
Discussing what he believes making a city safe means, Jennings said for the nation's capital, that could include reductions in violence and carjackings and locals feeling 'like they can walk around and not be under threat all the time.' He said the federal authorities have already made 'substantial progress,' pointing to dozens of arrests, and suggested Congress assess the effort after 30 days.
The discussion derailed after Roginsky brought up the January 6 Capitol riot.
'I guess I'm old enough, Scott, to remember when you were appalled as the rest of us were on January 6th when he wouldn't –' she began, before Jennings interrupted: 'Because January 6th happened, should we not enforce the law today?'
Jennings then called Roginsky's remarks a 'silly argument,' prompting her to snap back: 'Let me finish before you make a point about a silly argument.'
The pair continued to interrupt each other until Phillip tried to intervene. At one point, Roginsky accused Jennings of being 'thirsty' for a Senate seat. The conservative pundit then slammed: 'What are you thirsty for? Some kind of relevance out here?'
Roginsky eventually returned to the point she was initially trying to make.
'On January 6th, [Trump] could have deployed the National Guard. He chose not to,' she said. The Democratic strategist argued that the president is choosing now to deploy troops to D.C. in the wake of an alleged attack against a former DOGE staffer — widely known as 'Big Balls' — and noted that violence in the city hit a 30-year low this year.
Jennings later promoted a clip of the tense back-and-forth on his X account.
Trying to summarize his view of the exchange, he wrote Thursday morning: 'ME: 'Murder is bad and Trump is right for trying to prevent them.''
He then took a dig at his sparring partner: 'DEM: 'BUT JANUARY 6th!' (NOTE: I still have no idea who this person is or what they do for a living, other than make Democrats look stupid on TV)'
Mocking his format, she wrote in a scathing post: '(Note: I am someone who doesn't fellate the president nightly for a senate seat I will never get, which makes me different from you, Scott.)'
Jennings previously held campaign positions for Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, who announced in February that he wouldn't seek re-election in 2026. Last month, Jennings suggested he would consider a potential Senate run, but said he would defer to Trump on the matter.
'I do think politics is a team sport, and I think Trump's the head coach, and eventually he's gonna weigh in on this,' he said on Real America's Voice show Bolling! 'My political advice would be to anybody, you know, if he calls a play, we're gonna have to run it … so I don't really have any announcement about it at the moment.'
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Rates of violent crime dropped to 30-year lows last year, but it remains more prevalent in Washington DC than many cities with similar populations. Since Trump made the deployment official on Monday, the city recorded two homicides, bringing its count for the year up to 101. 'I just feel like it's too much federal overreach. I think it's unnecessary, and I think our MPD does a great job,' said Kevin Cataldo, a neighborhood commissioner whose district includes the block just north of downtown where the 100th homicide of the year took place on Monday, hours after Trump announced the federal takeover. The White House says 800 national guard troops will be on the ground in the city, along with hundreds of federal officers from the Drug Enforcement Administration, border patrol, FBI and other agencies. 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'You got working people living in the neighborhood, going to the store, getting picked up because of 16-, 17-year-olds. 'I understand targeting the area, but you can't really blame the people in the area who are trying to do better,' he added. Over the weekend, he had seen eight cars full of federal agents driving through his neighborhood like they wanted to be seen, something he had never witnessed the city police do. 'What is this for?' he wondered. 'It's more of an intimidation tactic.' Joseph Gedeon contributed reporting
