Scott Jennings has long played the utterly insufferable and condescending “know-it-all,” smugly talking over and around rather earnest liberals during CNN’s analysis of the day’s events. Obviously, the MAGA Mayhem team on “X” cannot get enough of him, including the equally obnoxious (at times) Joe Rogan, who simply loves the way Jennings out-testosterones his often double X’d chromosomal opponents.
But that’s a normal day at the office for Jennings. This week, he put his entire career on the line over the medical status of still-wretched “Moscow-Mitch McConnell.”
Just to be sure everyone is caught up, we’re talking about this Mitch McConnell:
McConnell, 84, was admitted to a hospital following a medical emergency at his home. EMS recordings showed paramedics responded to a report of an unconscious person believed to have suffered a ‘cardiac arrest,’ with a medic reporting ‘CPR in progress’ at the address.
And that was over three weeks ago.
Love him or hate him, or love to hate him, neither the dismount nor the silence is a positive sign for Mitch, nor is the fact that, despite assurances from the likes of Sen. John Thune, things remain rather unclear regarding McConnell’s condition. Again, according to USA Today:
On July 6, Thune spoke with McConnell on a variety of topics including national security, and the conversation was “long and substantive,” a Thune spokesperson said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Scott Jennings, a former high-level staffer to McConnell before becoming the mendacious know-it-all on CNN, went way out on a limb. From the same report:
After [Kasie] Hunt asked [Jennings] to call McConnell on air, Jennings laughed and said, “I wasn’t really expecting him to call this morning to be honest, so when the phone rang and I was able to talk to him, I was frankly pretty grateful. All the rumors about him being dead or brain dead or, you know… That’s obviously not true because he picked up the phone and called me.”
Right.
Except it’s not that obviously “not true” because how hard is it to snap a picture of McConnell on the phone with these team players if such a thing was as self-proving as we’re told? Moreover, there is a reason Kasie Hunt asked Jennings to call Mitch McConnell on-air, and that is likely because she doesn’t believe a word she just heard.
Hold up right here to clear the air with fairness. It is entirely possible that everyone is telling the truth and that McConnell is awake and aware enough to make such calls.
But for all of you who make a living bashing the mainstream media (Some of it well-deserved), consider this, please. Prominent media members in Washington, D.C., “hear things,” much of it “off the record” — which is honored as a means of securing real information from people in fear of either speculating or being caught passing along secret information. Now, consider what Hunt may be hearing off the record and try to imagine the last time a CNN host challenged a guest to prove someone is alive and sentient with a phone call on-air.
And it’s not like this doesn’t matter. The GOP desperately needs McConnell alive and functioning so as to avoid a Democratic governor appointing a replacement and a wide-open primary prior to what was to be a normal GOP-favoring November election.
If McConnell dies or resigns before his term ends, Governor Beshear (Democrat) would appoint a temporary replacement. There could then be a special election for the remainder of the term. By keeping McConnell “alive and engaged” past the key August cutoff (at least 20 days away), the GOP avoids triggering a special election that could introduce chaos, new candidates (including potentially Thomas Massie mounting a challenge), or give Beshear more influence over the temporary appointee.
Let’s fall back to how easy it would be to put this matter to bed, so to speak. One photograph of a conscious and sentient McConnell ends all speculation. And yet such obvious proof remains not only elusive but conspicuously absent.
Yes, Sens. Thune and Boraso say they’ve had the same conversations, but they lie all the time; they’re politicians. The bar is a little higher for those in the media, and don’t you dare let your cynical side fly for an hour; there are standards, and we’re talking real media, not Brian Kilmeade. This is the type that holds down evening chats.
Why anyone would watch CNN during any hour not hosted by Brianna Keilar is a question with which the reader can grapple, but for those who make the mistake, it’s not like Scott Jennings hasn’t played fast and loose with the truth before. Jennings once said:
“There are like almost 5 million able-bodied people on Medicaid who simply choose not to work. They spend six hours a day socializing and watching television.”
Yeah, except, no. False, as judged by Politifact.
So now let’s back up. Kasie Hunt – at the very least, isn’t about to take Scott Jennings’s word on the fact that he had a substantive conversation following Mitch McConnell’s call that morning. She laid down quite the challenge, “Okay, call him on air.” Jennings didn’t take the golden opportunity to lay all this to rest. Perhaps a poor choice of words.
Mitch McConnell is not dead. Of that, we can be all but certain. Withholding such information in today’s wired world is all but impossible. But the line between a beating heart and brain dead, or perhaps simply unconscious, isn’t that tough to manipulate, and the standard is “able to serve.” Politicians have a way to avoid “the lie.” Hand a phone to John Thune and let him talk into McConnell’s comatose body for ten minutes and e’ voila: “I talked to Mitch this morning about a wide range of things.” That’s good enough for a politician, or let the voters of South Dakota decide it’s not.
But Scott Jennings has a boss, and that boss has to at least hold on to the last vestiges of accountability and integrity on some of the last real reality television shows. The entire GOP has real motivation to lie; they want November to go just as planned. They don’t want Democratic Gov. Beshar appointing even a part-time Democrat to the Senate (One who can actually run as an incumbent), and they damn sure don’t want anti-establishment Thomas Massie mucking up the primary, perhaps as the GOP candidate, perhaps as an Independent, truly throwing what should have been an easy baton pass to Rep. Andy Barr into chaos.
There would be no more fitting way for Mitch McConnell to pass from this life than in a secret conspiracy to shut out the democratic process and install a GOP-favored son.
But back to Jennings. If that ffff… guy flat lied about something as provable as a phone conversation ± and Kasie Hunt has given us a major tell as to whether she believes him — there should be and likely will be major calls for his termination at CNN. And believe me, that would hurt Jennings. There is likely little better part-time work in Washington than somewhere around $500,000 a year to kick Democrats in the tummy for a few hours a day, a few days a week.
But it better happen if our working assumption remains true – that McConnell remains incapacitated to the point his staff alone is running out the clock in the ultimate “filibuster.” And even if McConnell would approve of the move, and there’s every indication he would, it’s still a sh*tty thing to do to an “elder statesman.”
To be sure, that “statesman” has done more to rip democracy out of the hands of the American people than even Donald Trump, a true enemy to the Constitution, and entire treatises will be written on how diabolically and cynically Mitch sought and retained power.
But if things are as they appear, it would sure be nice to see a McConnell “lesser” pay the ultimate price in trying to rig one last Constitutional dodge over the American people in his name.
You are on notice, Scott; best be up and up about this, or we’re coming for you.
Jason Miciak is a Rawstory columnist, former editor of Occupy Democrats, political consultant, author, attorney, and single parent girldad. Please follow on Bluesky, and he can be reached at [email protected], and he does read and appreciate critical comments.
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