CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings disturbed a CNN panel this week after insisting that federal agencies only like cooperating with Democratic presidential administrations.
During “CNN Newsnight” on Monday, the conservative pundit annoyed host Abby Phillip, “The View” co-host Ana Navarro, and ex-CNN political commentator Tara Setmayer by arguing that the federal agencies despise President Trump and Republican presidents, and that’s why they’re resisting Trump’s agenda.
“No, I know it is 100 percent true that bureaucracy is not aligned with – mostly not aligned with Republicans,” Jennings told the panel, which proceeded to begin talking over one another to discredit the commentator’s point.
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The discussion came up regarding Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk’s recent announcement that federal employees must respond to an Office of Personnel Management (OPM) email by reporting their accomplishments from the last week or potentially face losing their jobs. The move is in keeping with Musk and Trump’s push to cut government initiatives, workers, and spending found to be superfluous.
Trump praised the move, telling reporters on Monday, “I thought it was great, because we have people who don’t show up to work and nobody even knows if they work for the government.”
The directive roiled the federal workforce, while Democratic lawmakers and unions called on employees to flout it. During a CNN segment earlier on Monday, National Labor Relations Board field examiner MT Snyder told host Brianna Keilar how angry she is about the email.
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“This is clearly an attempt from Elon Musk to harass and bully and intimidate the federal workforce, which is part of his broader plan to gut the federal workforce and privatize public sector services to ensure that corporations like his own can get more profit, and that makes me really angry, and my co-workers as well,” she said.
Jennings remarked that this and similar reactions are representative of liberals in the federal government lashing out because it’s a Republican administration.
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“There‘s an attempt when a Republican’s in the White House – Donald Trump or any other Republican – to argue that these federal agencies, federal workers, the bureaucracy sort of can act independently or autonomously from the political leadership of the country. And that’s what’s happening here,” he said.
“That‘s why everyone is melting down. That’s why the lady came on CNN today. They don’t want to answer the email because they don’t want to answer to the president.”
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The remarks prompted the three women on the panel to chime in at the same time, with Phillip trying to regain control of the conversation. Once she got control, she asked, “Are you suggesting that it’s only when Republicans are president that agencies express independence?”
Jennings answered affirmatively several times, to which Phillips added, “Well, you know that’s not true.” A frustrated Navarro could be heard trying to get a word in as Jennings declared that the bureaucracy is not aligned with GOP administrations.
Phillips and Jennings continued to argue, though the CNN commentator wasn’t buying her points.
He eventually concluded, “I hear your debating point. I think it is incredibly naïve to believe that there are not civil service bureaucrats who would love nothing more than to thwart this president for four years and wait for a Democrat to come back.”
