CNN’s NewsNight descended into a nasty spat littered with personal insults after Republican strategist Scott Jennings bristled at a reminder of his past condemnation of Donald Trump’s handling of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
The panel was debating Trump’s move to deploy the National Guard to Washington, D.C., citing “out-of-control” crime and his authority to take over the Metropolitan Police for 30 days during an emergency.
Jennings, a close confidant of Sen. Mitch McConnell who has worked on the Kentucky Republican’s campaigns, called Trump’s actions necessary to restore safety in the capital.
Democratic operative Julie Roginsky countered by pointing out that Trump refused to call in the Guard as rioters stormed the Capitol in 2021. Jennings himself slammed the riot and Trump at the time. “I guess I’m old enough, Scott, to remember when you were appalled… on Jan. 6 when he wouldn’t—” she began, before Jennings cut in.
“Because Jan. 6 happened, should we not enforce the law today?” Jennings said, adding that Roginsky was supposedly making a “silly argument.”
As Jennings continued to interrupt Roginsky, host Abby Phillip pressed him to let her speak. “If she wants to come out here and take potshots at me, I’m not going to allow it!” Jennings said. “It’s a stupid argument, and I’m not going to allow it.”
“I know you’re thirsty for that Senate seat, but let me finish,” Roginsky fired back, referring to Jennings’ interest in McConnell’s soon-to-be-vacant seat. McConnell, 83, has announced he won’t run for re-election in 2026. Jennings has previously teased that he might run for the seat if Trump asks him to do so.
Jennings, out of shot, could be heard remonstrating with Phillip, saying: “You allow this every night! You allow it every day!”
As Phillip tried to give Roginsky the floor, Jennings again cut in, asking her: “What are you thirsty for? Some kind of relevance out here?”
When she was finally free to speak, Roginsky argued that Trump’s current law-and-order posture is a political “power grab” in a city “that has had a 30-year low in violence.”
“On Jan. 6, [Trump] could have deployed the National Guard. He chose not to… He didn’t give a damn,” she said, accusing Jennings of knowing it then but defending Trump now.
Jennings did, in fact, blast Trump’s inaction after the riot. In a Jan. 6, 2021, CNN op-ed headlined “Trump caused this insurrection and every Republican must condemn it,” he wrote: “These are domestic terrorists, and they ought to be treated like any other terrorist uprising with the full force and fury of the U.S. government.”
On Wednesday, though, Jennings dismissed Roginsky’s criticism. Roginsky insisted her point was about consistency, that Trump ignored a real emergency on Jan. 6 but is now sending in troops over an incident she mocked as “somebody named Big Balls [getting] beat up.”
Despite her efforts, Jennings was clearly happy with his performance. He retweeted an X post that said he “obliterated” the “irrelevant” Roginsky.
Writing on X after the melee, Roginsky repeated her claim that Jennings is “thirsty” for a Senate seat. “To clarify: I elect Democrats for a living. Unlike my counterpart tonight, I don’t debase myself every night for a living because I am thirsty for a senate seat that will go to someone else anyway,” she said.
