Democratic Senators who stand ready to sink their teeth into Trump’s cabinet picks are totally missing the political message the American people are sending them, one CNN analyst believes.
“They’re fighting the old battle while missing the point of the election — which is that people want change,” Scott Jennings told The Post.
“They’re the party of the status quo establishment, and it’s out of vogue right now. I don’t know what stage of grief this is that the Democrats are in, but it’s ugly.”
Jennings suggested this week’s confirmation hearings of Donald Trump’s cabinet picks — particularly the “theatrical” grilling of Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth — is proof that party leaders are spiraling.
“I was stunned honestly at how unprofessional and hysterical they were,” he said. “The Democratic Party is at such a low point.”
In Jennings’ estimation, politicians on the left simply can’t stop turning their noses up at the American public: “I can tell you one thing, voters are tired of being told that they’re too stupid to understand, and that is the motto of the Democratic Party: ‘You’re just too stupid to understand.’”
The same goes for the liberal media gaslighting Americans about Joe Biden.
“Any fair review of the polling and the sentiments in the country would tell you that it is a bipartisan sentiment that people can’t wait for this guy to leave office — and yet people are going on TV with a straight face talking about how this guy’s amazing,” said Jennings, who was deputy director of political affairs under President George W. Bush and a special assistant to the president.
And it’s still happening even after Biden was pushed out of the presidential campaign over worries about his competency — and revelations that it was covered up by his administration, Democratic leaders and the media.
“There are still people on TV today who are like, ‘Joe Biden is one of the greatest presidents. He’s George Washington,’” Jennings added.
“I just wonder when Democrats are going to stop digging. What they’re really doing is digging the hole even deeper, long after they’ve lost the election. I mean, it’s the number one rule of being in a hole: Stop digging.”
His criticism comes after Hegseth, a former Fox News anchor and Army veteran, was questioned by the Senate Armed Services Committee for four and a half hours on Tuesday and withstood relentless grilling about his sexual history, drinking habits and qualifications to run the Defense Department.
“What would have benefited the American people to hear more — about national security strategy or about the women that Pete Hegseth has had sex with?” Jennings said. “According to Tim Kaine, the sex is more important.”
During a particularly contentious eight-minute exchange, Sen. Kaine (D-VA) repeatedly ripped into Hegseth over sexual assault allegations and tirelessly demanded he admit to cheating on his wife, who was sitting directly behind the nominee at the hearing — even repeatedly pointing out that Hegseth’s 7-year-old daughter was conceived out of wedlock.
“I thought Tim Kaine was disgraceful, truthfully,” Jennings said. “He just went dumpster diving on Hegseth.”
He believes the Democrats’ cross-questioning got so out of control and personal that it will backfire — and actually help Hegseth get confirmed by Republicans who may have been on the fence.
“What the Democrats did at that hearing is lock Hegseth in. I believe he will be confirmed, and I believe the Democrats helped make it happen,” said Jennings.
Sen. John Curtis (R-UT), who was previously lukewarm about Hegseth, pledged his support for the nominee shortly after the face-off.
Jennings also called out senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Mazie Hirono (D-HI) for being especially “theatrical” during their interactions with Hegseth. Overall, he said, the Democrats’ comportment during the hearing was “much worse than I anticipated.”
He believes Democrats are particularly triggered by Hegseth’s nomination because he is an outsider: “He is not the traditional Washington inside pick, and [the Department of Defense] is an agency that loves its bureaucracy. The American people didn’t vote for business as usual. They voted for a shakeup. Hegseth represents a shakeup.”
Jennings also believes Hegseth has the impossible task of brushing off the “TV stigma.”
“They assume because he has a TV job at Fox that makes him vapid,” Jennings, who hosts the “Flyover Country” podcast, said. “I mean, the guy was in the military for 20 years, highly decorated. He’s an Ivy Leaguer. The dude has qualifications.”
Jennings believes Democrats are particularly triggered by Hegseth’s nomination because he is an outsider, much like president-elect Trump himself.
Jennings called out Democrats for failing to adequate “soul searching” about why the American people are so desperate for change after four years of a White House under Democratic control.
“They’re politically misinterpreting [Trump’s nominations], and they’re raging against these non-traditional picks,” Jennings said. “That’s exactly what the people voted for. Trump told them he was going to shake up Washington, and the people voted for it.
“The American people didn’t vote for business as usual.”
