CNN senior political commentator and network ratings driver Scott Jennings dove headfirst Tuesday into The Situation Room by making clear Americans are actually not dissatisfied with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and then schooling liberal panelists on unelected bureaucrats running the country and liberals being “collect[ed] like Pokemon cards” by liberal billionaire George Soros.
Asked by host Wolf Blitzer if the Trump team is “at risk of overstepping with” DOGE, Jennings calmly beat back at this, saying “they’re at risk of overstepping with the American people” because “part of the election result was the American people actually asking for a sledgehammer to the federal government” with trust and satisfaction with both at lows from too many politicians promising to shrink government, but never actually doing it.
“I don't think the voters are wanting a scalpel. I do think they're wanting a larger implements like a sledgehammer or a chainsaw,” he added, but was promptly interrupted by progressive CNN analyst and New York Times podcast host Lulu Garcia-Navarro insisting “that’s no longer true” with “polling” showing “how unpopular Elon Musk” and DOGE are.
Clearly annoyed with her interruption, Jennings clapped back: “[Y]ou know what I love about you, Lulu, is that you get to say what you want to say, and then you get to say what you think I ought to say. Why don't you just let me finish my point here?”
Jennings doubled down in his educating of the liberal CNN viewers that Americans “asked for a different direction and they what they did not ask for was a continuation of the status quo,” so DOGE “represent[s]...a complete deviation from what most people would say has been the status quo when it comes to a government that seems to always get bigger and we never really go in and root out waste, fraud, and abuse.”
Garcia-Navarro made sure she had the last word on that section, insisting “there's no transparency in any of this” and “nothing that we that either Congress, the people that have oversight of the power of the purse, are able to see[.]”
Moments later, former Biden-Harris 2020 official Alencia Johnson was railing against Musk as a dangerous, unelected government staffer when Jennings asked a devastating question: “I’m sorry, can I — can I ask a question? Did Joe Biden have staff at the White House, and how many of those staff members were elected?”
From there, the fight was on with Johnson invoking January 6 and claiming Musk is different than those dedicated to spending their careers in government (with the latter presumably having purer intentions).
Jennings, in contrast, noted the answer was zero when they spent the last four years actually running the government and called Johnson’s nonsense “the most naive and ridiculous talking point I've ever heard (click “expand”):
JOHNSON: Well, but Scott, Elon Musk —
JENNINGS: Zero. The answer is zero.
JOHNSON: — has a position that’s bigger than staff.
JENNINGS: Every president appoints people to do things for them.
JOHNSON: This is different from the chief of staff.
JENNINGS: To call him unelected is like —
JOHNSON: This is different from someone who has background in government.
JENNINGS: — the most naive and ridiculous talking point I've ever heard.
JOHNSON: Scott, I can't believe you would believe something like this, because if this was Joe Biden allowing for a billionaire —
JENNINGS: Allowing people who weren't elected —
JOHNSON: — who helped get him elected —
JENNINGS: — to run the country —
JOHNSON: — in the White House —
JENNINGS: — for the last four years? Yeah, I would believe that, actually.
JOHNSON: — you all would be throwing another coup like January 6.
BLITZER: I want —
JENNINGS: I would believe it if Joe Biden had unelected people running the government for the last — may — the last year, maybe the last four years? Yeah, I’d believe every word of it.
JOHNSON: You — you would be up in arms. Scott. You would —
JENNINGS: I was up in arms about it.
JOHNSON: — would literally be up in arms — you and your Republican members would be up in arms about it.
Garcia-Navarro jumped in and inadvertently undermined not only herself, but Johnson as well but saying “there’s a difference” between Musk and George Soros.
Jennings took a mile from the inch Garcia-Navarro gave him, leveling the devastating blow: “George Soros does have influence over Democrats. He collects your people like Pokemon cards. He has influence over every single one of you.”
Only after this did host Wolf Blitzer regain control of the show.
To see the relevant CNN transcript from February 25, click here.