A CNN guest went nuclear after sparring with a Republican strategist on air, calling out the network for repeatedly booking a major MAGA mouthpiece.
On Sunday evening, Democratic political operative Julie Roginsky sparred with Republican strategist Scott Jennings during a tense exchange on CNN Newsroom, where he repeatedly spoke over her as she attempted to make a point.
The dispute continued on X, after Jennings posted what appeared to be a selective clip meant to score a “gotcha” point. Roginsky fired back: “Careful, @ScottJennings… no matter how much you want to emulate Orange Daddy, he hasn’t forgotten that you worked for Mitch McConnell. No amount of self-abasement is going to make you the WH press secretary or the next senator from Kentucky.”
Hours later, Roginsky went nuclear on Jennings and the network on her Salty Politics Substack.
In a withering take-down of Jennings, she noted that the lengthy missive will probably see her dropped by CNN, but she felt it necessary to call out what she sees as tumbling standards at the network.
CNN’s main issue, she argued, is that the network continues to book the shouty Trump acolyte known for his ultra-partisanship. “CNN once sold itself as the grown-up in the room,” she wrote, adding that “continued reliance on Scott Jennings is not just baffling, but corrosive to its brand.”
Roginsky, a former prominent Fox News contributor who, along with many others, sued Roger Ailes, insisted the issue with Jennings was not ideology. “The problem is not that Jennings is a Republican,” she wrote. “The problem is how he behaves, what he contributes, and what his presence signals about what CNN now tolerates.”
Her sharpest language focused on Jennings’ on-air conduct.
Jennings, she wrote, “does not debate; he blathers,” accusing him of talking over women, interrupting relentlessly, and treating panels as “contests of volume and obstinacy.”
The Daily Beast has previously reported how Jennings drowned out Roginsky’s fair argument about the Jan. 6 riots, to the point where CNN NewsNight host Abby Phillip had to step in.
Phillip pressed him to let her speak. “If she wants to come out here and take potshots at me, I’m not going to allow it!” Jennings said during a meltdown back in August. “It’s a stupid argument, and I’m not going to allow it.”
“I know you’re thirsty for that Senate seat, but let me finish,” Roginsky fired back, referring to Jennings’ interest in Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell’s soon-to-be-vacant seat.
He later retweeted an X post that said he “obliterated” the “irrelevant” Roginsky.
On her Substack, Roginsky described his social media tactics as selectively edited and misleading, calling him “too chickens–t to post the whole segment that would expose the truth.”
Roginsky also alleged a broader pattern behind the scenes, writing that several women who have appeared on CNN panels believe they were no longer invited back after embarrassing Jennings on air. “Whether this is true or not,” she wrote, “enough women have seen a pattern that they believe it.”
The post went further, questioning CNN’s internal incentives and whether conflict-driven engagement has overtaken standards. “The message this sends is unmistakable,” Roginsky wrote. “Decorum is optional, accuracy is negotiable, and if you are loud enough, management will treat you as indispensable.”
She framed Jennings’ rise as coinciding with the political moment, suggesting the network is now boxed in by a Trump-era media ecosystem. She said that it rewards provocation over restraint. Keeping him on, she argued, is “not neutrality. It is a choice.”
Roginsky concluded by warning that once trust is gone, “it does not come back easily,” and that CNN’s legacy is something it either “honors or squanders every day.”
She later shared the newsletter on X, writing: “I think Scott Jennings is extra hurt because this is going pretty viral tonight.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to CNN for comment.
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