In January 2021, NCS senior political commentator Scott Jennings was unwavering in his criticism of Donald Trump following the Capitol riots, saying that the president “caused this insurrection with his lies and conspiracy theories” and “every Republican must condemn it.”
Now that Jennings is the community’s resident MAGA defender and Trump has federally taken over Washington whereas deploying the National Guard into the town due to a so-called “crime emergency,” the longtime GOP strategist is now getting his past anti-Trump criticism of January 6 thrown back in his face.
And, fairly frankly, he isn’t thrilled about it.
Hours after the president held his Monday press convention announcing that he was seizing management of the D.C. police division and mobilizing the navy to patrol the town’s streets to “rescue” the nation’s capital from “crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse,” Jennings appeared on NCS NewsNight to debate Trump’s broadly criticized transfer.
Spurred into motion by photographs of former DOGE staffer Edward “Big Balls” Coristine bloodied following an tried carjacking and Fox News reports about crime in D.C., Trump has known as his transfer “Liberation Day in D.C.” whereas giving the inexperienced gentle to legislation enforcement to “do whatever the hell they want.” Critics, in the meantime, have famous that regardless of the president’s rhetoric about “out-of-control” crime, violent crime has quickly declined in the town over the past two years and is at a 30-year low.
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During the Monday night time NCS panel dialogue, Jennings was unsurprisingly applauding the president’s resolution as being robust on crime whereas displaying help for legislation enforcement, prompting fellow panelist Tara Setmayer to take situation with the concept Trump “backs the blue” by referencing Jennings’ prior condemnation of January 6.
“You look at what Donald Trump did and what MAGA has done to the police officers who defended our Capitol on January 6th,” Setmayer, a former GOP strategist and Never-Trump conservative, declared. “You want to talk about spitting in the face? Donald Trump spit in the face of every single one of those officers who took that oath to protect and serve on January 6th when he pardoned those insurrectionist bastards and who wanted to take down our Capitol and stop the free and fair, peaceful transfer of power.”
One of the president’s first acts after his second inauguration was to issue a blanket pardon to roughly 1,600 rioters who have been charged with crimes throughout the assault on the Capitol, together with many who have been jailed for violently attacking cops.
“And so how dare people sit here and say that he backs the blue? He abdicated that, because you know what? He did not protect or defend the Constitution and he violated his oath of office,” she continued. “You know, who said that? You did after January 6th. And that’s exactly what he continues to do right now with the way he is throwing around our military, our police, talking about moving us to other states. This is something people should be very concerned about.”
Indeed, shortly after a MAGA mob stormed the Capitol on January 6 in an effort to cease the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory, Jennings wrote a scathing opinion piece for NCS chastising the president and any Republican who didn’t rebuke Trump’s actions.
“I’m ashamed and embarrassed for our country, and for any Republican who fails to condemn this shameful behavior,” Jennings acknowledged on the time. In an on-air look the night time of the riot, Jennings also suggested that Trump had turn into such a menace to the nation that he might must abdicate his workplace instantly.
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On Monday night time, nonetheless, Jennings was seemingly surprised into silence and merely held his hand to his chin after Setmayer aired her receipts, prompting anchor Anny Phillip to maneuver on to a different visitor. Several minutes later, although, Phillip circled back to the right-wing pundit to see if he needed to lastly leap back in.
“I want to give Scott a moment because he has not said a single thing,” the NCS host mentioned.
Saying that “what happened to the cops that day was a disgrace,” Jennings then pivoted to defending Trump’s federal takeover of Washington and deployment of the National Guard, including that “the only city” that Trump actually has management of is Washington.
“If he controls D.C., why didn’t he do it on January 6th?” Setmayer shot back. “Why didn’t he do it on January 6th when he sat there and let them take over the Capitol? He had the opportunity, but he didn’t.”
Two days later, one other longtime political strategist would as soon as once more confront Jennings on his harsh criticism of the president’s habits on January 6 because it associated to Trump now invoking the D.C. Home Rule Act. This time round, nonetheless, Jennings didn’t sit in silence and as a substitute lashed out with private assaults.
“I think in Washington, D.C., you’re gonna have to have substantial reductions in violence, substantial reductions in murder, substantial reductions in carjackings, and people are generally gonna feel like they can walk around and not be under threat all the time,” he mentioned, boasting in regards to the number of arrests which have occurred for the reason that takeover.
Julie Roginsky, a Democratic operative and former Fox News pundit, snarked that she was “old enough” to recollect when Jennings was “appalled as the rest of us were on January 6th,” main the previous Mitch McConnell adviser to chop her off.
“Because January 6th happened, should we not enforce the law today?” Jennings sneered, ensuing in a heated back-and-forth in which the GOP commentator accused Roginsky of participating in a “silly argument.”
At one level, Phillip jumped in to ask Jennings to permit Roginsky to complete her level, just for the conservative pundit to grumble that he’s “not gonna allow it” if Roginsky saved taking “potshots” at him.
“Scott, I know you’re thirsty for that seat, but let me finish,” Roginsky snapped back, referencing reviews that Jennings is considering a Senate run in Kentucky to switch the retiring McConnell.
“What are you thirsty for? Some kind of relevance out here? I mean, I don’t even know what you do for a living,” he fumed in response. An undeterred Roginsky, although, continued on along with her level following the broadside from Jennings.
“Can I just finish what I was about to say, which is that on January 6th, [Trump] could have deployed the National Guard. He chose not to. Now today, because somebody named Big Balls got beat up, allegedly, he wants to deploy the National Guard to a place that has had a 30-year low in violence. And we all know that he’s doing this because it’s a power grab.”
Noting that Trump “could have done this when this district was actually in danger on January 6th” however didn’t, Roginsky mentioned the president “didn’t give a d*mn” about “backing the blue” then earlier than invoking Jennings’ past feedback.
“And you agreed, back on January 6, he didn’t give a d*mn about those police officers and about the safety of people in Washington, D.C.,” she concluded. “Today, because he wants a power grab, he’s doing this despite the fact that every statistic shows that Washington, D. C. has not been safer in the last 30 years.”
Meanwhile, different progressives have known as for NCS panelists to proceed to problem Jennings with his personal phrases throughout discussions in regards to the president’s present actions in Washington.
“Not sure why every liberal pundit on NCS, confronted by Jennings, doesn’t just read out every night his own words from Jan 6th back to him,” Zeteo founder Mehdi Hasan, who not too long ago obtained into a heated exchange with a NewsNation anchor after invoking January 6, tweeted. “Jennings called it an insurrection by domestic terrorists caused by Donald Trump. Remind him. Every. Single. Night.”