Things got wild on CNN on Monday, January 6, when Republican CNN contributor Scott Jennings was told by CNN host Kate Bolduan to “zip it” as he argued during a heated discussion about the real importance of the January 6, 2021 trespass in the Capitol and the legacy of outgoing President Joe Biden.
The spat that led to the abominably bad behavior began when, addressing Jennings, Bolduan observed, “You can play all the soundbites from the days after [the J6 protest and Capitol trespass] when you heard Republicans blaming Donald Trump, some short of saying he should be impeached, saying he should be held accountable. And four years later, we are here.” Then, following that up with a question, she asked, “It is a stunning political comeback attributed to how Trump played it afterward, how Democrats played it afterward, or something else?”
Jennings, replying, told her, “Well, I think it’s some mixture of everything. But to me, the big message is that in the United States, the people decide. And because of the disastrous four years that came after Donald Trump, the people decided to return Donald Trump to power. And that’s fundamentally what happened.”
He further noted, commenting on what voters thought about what the Democrats freaked out about, “They looked at what happened on January the 6th, they looked at all the things Democrats claimed about Donald Trump. And they also analyzed every single decision that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris made. And they delivered Donald Trump a convincing four years.”
Bolduan, chiming back in, snapped, commenting again on the events of January 6 and democracy in America generally, “It is tough, though, Scott, because when you say that people decide that’s what people tried to make sure didn’t happen on January 6th, was allowing the people to decide it.”
Joining in eventually was co-panelist Bakari Sellers, who argued that “Donald Trump is inheriting one of the best economies that a president has inherited in a very long period of time.” Continuing, he claimed that “net migration at the border is lower than it was even before Donald Trump took office.” Jennings, firing back, noted, “Okay. I mean, I recognize that was the argument that was made during the election. And I would also like to recognize that the American people soundly rejected that argument.”
That then led to a contentious back and forth. Sellers snapped, “Prices are going down. What I am saying is murder rates-” Jennings, not buying the prices claim, told Sellers, “They’re not going down.” Sellers, without providing evidence, insisted that prices are, in fact, going down. He said, “They actually are going down. Murder rates-”
Jennings wasn’t backing down. He fired back, commenting on the massive inflation issue, “They’re not. Inflation is still going up.” Sellers then told him, “It’s plateaued.” Bolduan, chiming back in, corrected both of them and said, “It is decreasing in rate, which is the entire goal of the Federal Reserve.”
Jennings then noted that, regardless, the prices have not gone down, even if the rate at which they are increasing has slowed. He said, “Are prices going down or not, just to be clear? No, they’re not and they’re-” Bolduan, getting angry, snapped, “They are down from their sky high rates, yes. Wait, wait, wait. Stop! Let’s move on. Next up for Republican-”
Sellers, chiming back in with nonsense, said, “We were just arguing over combat zones. I don’t know where we are this morning.” Then, as Jennings tried to correct them both, Bolduan, exploding, snapped, “Zip it!” Jennings then accused them of trying “to paint a picture of a country that doesn’t exist! I don’t understand!” Bolduan, concluding, snapped, “I’m not painting anything, I’m painting stop talking! That’s what I’m painting.”
Watch them here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
"*" indicates required fields