In a somewhat surprising turn of events, it was a CNN pundit who set off Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez of New York by criticizing Rep. Ilhan Omar. That CNN pundit was Scott Jennings, who took a shot at Rep. Omar over her statements regarding Israel, Gaza, and Hamas. Rep. Omar has been a frequent critic of Israel and its war policy, leading Jennings to snipe at her and call her a “mouthpiece” of Hamas, the terrorist organization.
As background, Rep. Omar recently blamed Israel for the continuation of the conflict, saying that Hamas was willing to negotiate a ceasefire, but Israel refused. “It was Israel that refused to send negotiators to be at the table to carve out — you have to remember that a cease-fire is not something that happens magically,” Rep. Omar said.
CNN’s Abby Phillips brought up Omar and her comments, asking Jennings, “Scott, were you surprised to hear her say pretty clearly she would support President Biden in November? And some of her colleagues, I’m pretty sure, wouldn’t say that today.”
Responding, Jennings told her, “No, she’s a Democrat. They’re gonna vote for Biden. I’m not surprised about that. I am surprised that, in the year of our Lord, 2024, there is a public relations agent for Hamas sitting in the United States Congress. The reason Israel is not at that meeting is because Hamas will not provide a list of the living hostages. I didn’t hear a word – a word of concern for the hostages.”
Continuing, he ridiculed the idea of a ceasefire, saying, “Ceasefires – she said – don’t happen magically. Well, you know there was a ceasefire in place on October the 6th. And who broke it on October the 7th? I cannot believe honestly what I heard out of that interview. What I want are for those hostages to come home. I want somebody – somebody out there to show just a little bit of remorse that Hamas broke the ceasefire, raped, and murdered horrifically women all kinds of people. That – that’s it. How about a little bit of concern for those folks? That’s what I’m looking for.”
Predictably, that led to a freakout from “The Squad.” Rep. AOC, for example, alleged that Jennings had expressed an Islamophobic view in his comments, snapping, in a post on X, “How on earth is this kind of blatant Islamophobia so casually accepted without pushback? This is shocking.”
Similarly, Rep. Cori Bush attacked Jennings for his comments in a post on X, writing, “Scott Jennings’ comments are reminiscent of the anti-Muslim bigotry we saw in the George Bush post-9/11 era. It is disgusting and must not be normalized. CNN should denounce this hateful, dangerous and blatant Islamophobia immediately.”
"*" indicates required fields
House Minority Leader Jamaal Bowman joined in as well, writing, in a post on X, “Scott Jennings’ comments are disgustingly racist and Islamophobic. Comments like this, especially on national news, are extremely dangerous and fuel anti-muslim hate crimes. CNN should never have him on again! This hatred is unacceptable and cannot be normalized.”
Watch the CNN segment here: