Former D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone earlier this week said CNN’s Scott Jennings “does not deserve a platform,” calling him “an opportunist” who curiously changed his mind about President Donald Trump to reap the benefits as a Republican heel on “NewsNight.”
A mob of MAGA voters attacked Fanone during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and he later suffered a heart attack. He joined Mediate reporter Tommy Christopher’s Substack for an interview on Wednesday, torching Jennings through much of it.
Christopher asked if there’s at least a benefit to “NewsNight” host Abby Phillip regularly calling Jennings out, but also noted that “she won’t call him a liar to his face.” While Phillip has done so on social media, Fanone argued “that’s the problem.
“The other thing she’s doing is she’s elevated Scott Jennings’ platform to a position now where he has this tremendous podcast and he’s become a darling of the right,” Fanone added. “Scott Jennings does not deserve a platform!”
Fanone also pointed out that Jennings regularly contradicts his own “relatively moderate views” from four or five years ago. Jennings called Trump an “authoritarian” in 2016 and said he “violated his oath of office” on Jan. 6.
Fanone added that “for every person that thinks he’s an asshole and a clown, there’s 200 people on the right” that are starting to tune into CNN for Jennings because he goes on CNN “and ‘owns the libs’ day in and day out… and I just don’t think that it’s healthy for the country.”
Jennings has defended several Trump blunders this year. He also argued that if the president was involved in the crimes of late child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, “we would already know” — despite classified documents in the matter still awaiting release.
Phillip did push back during that discussion and is aware of the criticisms of her show.
Andrew Harnik/Pool/Associated Press
She said during a recent “Breakfast Club” interview that platforming pro-Trump voices is “an opportunity” to have much-needed debates. She added that she draws her own lines on certain “NewsNight” guests and their comments “when they need to be drawn.”
Fanone expressed a different ethos during his Substack appearance.
“I don’t have any interest in debating MAGA,” he said. “I’m not going to sit here and debate with you about whether it’s inhumane or unconstitutional to go in and rip people away from their families and deport them with no due process. That’s not a debate for me.”
He continued, “It’s not a debate for me to tell you about my experience on Jan. 6. I couldn’t care less about convincing you. The only thing that I want to do is defeat you. I want to remove you and your extremist ideology from our political discourse in this country because I find it to be unhealthy.”
