In a rare turn of events for CNN, things got entertaining on one of its news panels. That came when Republican commentator and frequent guest Scott Jennings got into a major verbal brawl with “CNN NewsNight” host Abby Phillip and a slew of other panelists by arguing that an anti-Trump scientist destroyed his own credibility by making remarks about men getting pregnant.
As background, the argument was precipitated by a group of Centers for Disease Control (CDC) officials deciding to resign in the wake of CDC Director Susan Monarez getting fired, with one of those who quit being Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
Jennings noted that Dr. Daskalakis was a user of the term “pregnant people,” implying that men can get pregnant, a term that led Jennings to not see Daskalakis as “credible.” Making that point, Jennings said, “I just have to say he did use the term ‘pregnant people’ in his resignation. This guy’s not credible to me.”
Kicking the big fight off in her response to that, Phillip said, “I mean, look, the reason, Scott, I said what I said is because rather than you seriously answering a question about the real concerns that were raised by these officials about the bending of science to the will of that guy, you decided that the most important thing to you was their lack of credibility because they used the word ‘people?’ I mean, I just think — I understand the rhetoric and the political —”
That’s when Jennings chimed in and noted that, in supporting various woke science officials so strongly, Phillip was aiding and abetting the politicization of science, doing so even as she insisted to be against such a thing. He said, “You realize that you’re accepting some politicization of science, but not others, right?”
Angrily and lamely responding, Phillip asked, “What’s the politicization of science that’s been accepted?” Jennings fired back, noting the infamous “pregnant people” messaging pushed by such scientists as those that Phillip was defending, such as Dr. Daskalakis, “Can men get pregnant or not?”
That set off both Phillip and fellow panel personality Dr. Chris T. Parnell, with the two jumping into claim that making up such things as the absurd idea that men can get pregnant isn’t political. Jennings rebuked them, saying, “It’s a question of whether your scientists are going to politicize or not. And you accept some and not others.”
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Phillip then again lamely insisted that the pregnant men comments aren’t relevant to the politicization of science, insisting, “That has nothing to do with the conversation that we are having.” Jennings noted that it is indeed relevant, as it gets at their credibility. He said, “I disagree. It’s a credibility issue.”
That, in turn, led to a spiraling freakout over the recent shooting near the CDC in Atlanta, with fellow woke panelist S.E. Cupp jumping in to insisted, “No, but why do we have to get derailed by this political BS when you could just say, yeah, that’s garbage and we shouldn’t politicize science and CDC?” Jennings again noted the hypocrisy of the whole thing, saying, “Because some scientists are allowed to politicize things and some aren’t.”
Watch the fight here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video