MAGA political commentator Scott Jennings was rebuked after trying to turn a CNN clash about the Jeffrey Epstein files into what he called “an IQ test” directed at fellow panelist Franklin Leonard.
Political commentator Jennings defended Trump’s innocence as the rest of the table questioned why Trump wouldn’t simply greenlight the release.
The conversation, on CNN’s NewsNight show, began tense and went downhill. Earlier in the day, the Senate unanimously approved a bill to release the Epstein files after it had also passed overwhelmingly in the House.
Leonard, a film producer and commentator, pushed, “Scott, you keep saying, well, he didn’t do anything. There’s no indication of criminality. If that’s true, he should be elated that we’re putting these out.” Jennings shot back, “It’s not if that’s true, it is true. Can you name any evidence?”
“I would like to see the evidence…,” Leonard began, before Jennings cut in again, “You think after 10 years of public life you wouldn’t know it already?” Leonard, “No, I don’t! That’s exactly the point.”
Jennings groaned and declared, “Oh, come on, this is an IQ test. Don’t fail it. Come on, man.”
Leonard’s response was immediate, “Scott, that’s embarrassing.”
Host Abby Phillip stepped in, reminding Jennings that no one has been prosecuted in a decade. By your logic, she asked Jennings, “Is that a sign that nothing has happened?”
Jennings insisted, “No, absolutely not.”
But the “IQ” comment landed like a brick, and it returned when panelist Joshua Doss, a political pollster from Chicago, revisited it directly. “I feel like I just heard Scott call into question this Black man’s intelligence with the IQ test,” he told Phillip. “I feel like I heard that… ”
Jennings snapped, “You’re ridiculous. You wanna make it racial, but it’s ridiculous. By the way, we know each other and we’re friends. I know this man. He’s a smart guy, and we’re having a debate. Don’t make it into something, we don’t even know each other, but we do,” he added, pointing at Leonard.
After the show, Leonard carried on the debate, shading Jennings on X without breaking stride, “Suffice it to say that I have no concerns about my IQ. Epstein isn’t an IQ test. It’s a moral test. And I’m clear on where I stand there too. If only everyone else could say the same.”
Jennings didn’t mention the drama on social media, but he did challenge whether Democrats should be pushing so hard to get the files released. “Democrats may want to be careful what they wish for regarding the release of the Epstein Files,” he said on X. “What we’re already learning about several Dems is UGLY. What else will we learn?”
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