Republican strategist Scott Jennings was brutally called out for “lying” during a tense CNN debate about divisive figures in the MAGA movement.
The NewsNight panel on Monday evening pored over such figures in the wake of MAGA infighting at the Turning Point USA event in Arizona that ended on Sunday. There, big players including Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson aimed shots at one another.
The conversation among the panelists then shifted to “moral clarity” within the party, after the members discussed vile Young Republican group chats that were leaked in October. They contained a flurry of racial slurs and comments about Jews and “gas chambers.”
Adam Mockler of MeidasTouch said that Vice President JD Vance’s comments about this saga, essentially that he condemns it, but kids will be kids, show that the Trump administration cannot claim to be the arbiter of moral clarity.
He then used Paul Ingrassia as another example. Ingrassia is the 30-year-old Trump loyalist who withdrew his nomination to lead the Office of Special Counsel in October after Politico revealed a string of vile group-chat messages in which he used racial slurs, bragged about having a “Nazi streak,” and said Martin Luther King Jr. Day should be “tossed into the seventh circle of hell.”
“And listen, do you know who Paul Ingrassia is?” Mockler demanded of the NewsNight panel.
“Yeah, we’ve debated it,” Jennings said.
“OK, so do you know what Paul Ingrassia said?” the MeidasTouch journalist said. “Yeah, we’ve debated it,” Jennings said.
Mockler added: “But has Trump fired him, or is he still a part of the administration?”
“I don’t know where he is right now,” Jennings squirmed, as Mockler accused him of lying.
He said: “He’s a part of the administration. And you know that. You’re lying right now. You know that he is a part of the administration. He is still there.
“And he said he has a ‘Nazi streak.’ So you can sit there and play coy, but you are not having the clarity that you are talking about right now. Do you condemn Paul Ingrassia?”
“I certainly condemn anything–” Jennings began, before Mockler chimed in, “Should Trump fire Paul Ingrassia?”
Jennings continued his original sentence, “…approximating having a Nazi streak.”
Nina Turner, a Democratic former Ohio state Senator, threw Jennings a bone by piping up, asserting that both her former party and the GOP have a “problem” with “coddling bigots.”
Ingrassia, as Mockler said, still works in the Trump administration. Two days after Ingrassia’s messages became public, Jennings said he supported the administration’s move to withdraw Ingrassia’s nomination to lead the Office of Special Counsel. Three weeks later, however, Trump named Ingrassia acting general counsel at the General Services Administration.
The New York Times noted in October that Ingrassia’s continued employment in the executive branch illustrates how antisemitic and hateful rhetoric has been normalized and excused by some in power.
In the leaked group chat, Ingrassia allegedly wrote, “Blacks behave that way because that’s their natural state… You can’t change them,” and, “Proof: all of Africa is a s–thole, and will always be that way.”
The post Scott Jennings Cornered Over Trump’s ‘Nazi Streak’ Aide: ‘You’re Lying Right Now!’ appeared first on The Daily Beast.
