A CNN talking head has said he’s completely unfazed by Donald Trump bringing legal complaints against media organizations like the one to which he regularly contributes.
Scott Jennings, a Republican Party strategist and adviser who routinely appears on CNN’s NewsNight With Abby Phillip and was recently appointed to the editorial board at the Los Angeles Times, told the program on Tuesday that “I don’t, frankly, have a problem” with the president-elect suing news organizations considered critical of the GOP.
Earlier in the day, news broke that Trump is suing Iowa publication The Des Moines Register for “brazen election interference” after the daily published a poll suggesting Vice President Kamala Harris would beat him at the November vote by 3 points in the state, which he went on to win by 13.
It comes amid his ongoing suit against CBS over an interview with Harris, aired by 60 Minutes, which his team say was manipulatively edited, and after ABC agreed to pay him $15 million to settle a defamation claim regarding historic allegations of rape.
Moments before, Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen had warned the president-elect’s lawsuits don’t need to be substantive, or actually even succeed, in order to have a chilling effect on the publications and networks he brings them against.
“Not only does Donald Trump have money, he has money with the RNC,” Cohen told host Abby Phillip. “He has money with his super PACS and his money has money. Look at all of the tech billionaires that are around him now, there’s an indefinite amount of money.”
Cohen added, “I believe wholeheartedly that The Des Moines Register, very much like ABC Disney, is going to capitulate. And I believe that Donald Trump has actually figured out how to change the way the media deals with issues.”
With an implicit nod to the fact the show’s own network has also aired critical coverage of Trump in the past, Phillip then asked Jennings, “Are you worried at all about this, Scott? Just where it could go… I mean if he’s creating precedent, it’s for everybody.”
Jennings replied, “I think one of the reasons Republicans are cheering on this muscular attitude from Trump and pushing back against some of this is because Republicans feel like constantly, media organizations, especially in the throes of campaigns, work overtime to create false narratives that may shape the contours of the election.”
He added, “He’s pushing back on that. I don’t, frankly, have a problem with it. And if they capitulate, it’s because they don’t wanna go through the discovery and what that might show.”
