Conservative campaign adviser and frequent CNN commentator Scott Jennings was on the receiving end of mockery from host Jim Acosta and CNN political commentator Paul Begala after he went on a rant after being pressed on the controversial Project 2025 conservative platform that Donald Trump is now running away from.
With both Jennings and Begala on to discuss the latest poll numbers for President Joe Biden and Trump, Acosta brought up Project 2025 as a drag on the GOP ticket with Jennings bizarrely comparing it to progressive House members, known as the "squad," calling to defund the police.
"Let's talk about Project 2025, host Acosta prompted. "You've got dozens of former Trump officials involved in this project. Let's look at the organization behind the project, which is sponsoring the RNC, has banners up at the Milwaukee airport welcoming conventiongoers.
"What's going on? Why is Trump ... why are his advisors trying to distance themselves from the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025. I mean, it sounds like , you know, that they are very much like-minded on a lot of these things?"
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"Because they're not the president, they're not running for president," Jennings parried. "The Heritage Foundation doesn't appear on the ballot. The people working on this don't appear on the ballot. The only person who decides what policies they're going to pursue is the person on the ballot or the person in the Oval Office, or at least that used to be the case before Joe Biden — I'm not so sure given the reporting about how he's out to lunch or whatever."
"But in this Donald Trump will ultimately decide what his agenda is and that's why the RNC put out a platform." he excitedly added. "If the Democrats want to play this game though, I think they should be prepared to own every single policy proposal ever issued by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), the rest of the squad; Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT), socialist organizations in America that support that group."
"If you want to play this game, then you're going to have to own everything starting with defund the police," he exclaimed. "So what I'm going to assume, Jim, is that Democrats want to own for Joe Biden defund the police if they want him to own project 2020, then they can own defund the police and we'll see how the American people sort it out."
A bemused Begala replied, "I've got to say kudos to my buddy Jennings there for that deflection, you're slicker than a bucket full of eels."
A laughing Acosta added, "I want to say 'defund the police'? What year is this? Anyway, I thought we were talking about Project 2025."
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