Conservative CNN pundit Scott Jennings argued that the Signal leak has been blown out of proportion as he butted heads with a New York Times reporter on “Laura Coates Live.”
Lulu Garcia-Navarro, a podcast host at The New York Times, hypothesized that if war plans had been leaked to a reporter under a Democratic administration, “I think, Scott, you would have been the first person to call for those people’s resignation.”
But Jennings hit back that hypotheticals were unnecessary – pointing to the bomb attack that killed 13 service members in Afghanistan in a “disastrous military operation.”
As Garcia-Navarro argued that the two incidents were completely different, Jennings exclaimed: “Who died? In which case did people die?”
The two clashed on the CNN show on Friday over the gravity of the Signal leak – when top security officials mistakenly added The Atlantic’s editor in chief to a group chat that reportedly included military plans to bomb Yemen’s Houthis.
President Donald Trump has seemingly tried to brush off the scandal despite calls for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz to step down.
Trump told NBC News’ Kristen Welker over the weekend that he doesn’t “fire people because of fake news and because of witch hunts.”
“I do believe the White House had, and I think the president has, some right to be unhappy about what happened because he made a righteous decision and the military carried out his orders — ruthlessly, efficiently. We did what we’re supposed to do here,” Jennings said.
Here is the latest on the Yemen Signal group-chat:
“You know, it was a good operation and it’s totally been overshadowed by this communications snafu,” he added.
Jennings said the White House should not “give a scalp” or “give in to the mob” in firing the officials involved in the leak.
“If I’ve learned one thing about the mob, it’s never enough. If they fired Hegseth, they’d ask for Waltz. If they fired Waltz, they’d ask for Hegseth,” Jennings said. “I think they will weather this storm and move on. It is a teachable moment. And learn from it.”
Garcia-Navarro slammed the Signal leak as “an enormous breach” and said Jennings would have been the first to call for “scalps” if a Democrat had made the slip-up.
Jennings retorted that the “Secretary of Defense went AWOL and killed 13 American soldiers” under the Biden administration.
The Times reporter and Jennings raised their voices and spoke over one another, forcing host Laura Coates to jump in.
“Everyone stop talking. I think everyone has misconstrued the title of this show,” Coates said. “I’d like to hear what you both have to say, but our audience wants to hear from both of you separately.”
Garcia-Navarro responded: “If this was a Democrat or a Democratic administration who had foolishly, unconscionably created a group chat to have discussion about a military operation that was top secret, I think, Scott, you would have been the first person to call for those people’s resignation.”
Jennings responded: “You don’t have to make up hypotheticals, Lulu, about if this happened in a Democratic administration.”
“Let me take you back in time. In a Democratic administration, the Secretary of Defense oversaw a disastrous military operation in which 13 servicemen died in Afghanistan. Then to try to make up for it, they vaporized like seven children in a drone strike,” he continued.
Garcia-Navarro cut in, saying: “But this is a completely different thing…and I can take you back in time, Scott, and I can talk about the Iraq War.”
