Scott Jennings tried hard on Friday on CNN’s “NewsNight” to argue that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) deserve to be criminally investigated, but appeared to come up short when host Abby Phillip confronted him.
Jennings argued that one could “reasonably consider” these statements threats.
“They have made numerous statements, Abby, over and over and over again, that they don’t think ICE should be in Minneapolis, that they don’t think federal immigration laws should be enforced, that they think law enforcement has been put in danger by incitement,” he said.
Phillip then countered, “None of those are threats.”
Phillip had demanded earlier that Jennings point to specific, actual threats from Walz and Frey, to which Jennings could only repeat that they “made statements” — leading Phillip to repeatedly ask, “Like what?”
Eventually, Jennings cited Walz publicly pleading for President Donald Trump to “end this occupation.”
“Is that a threat?” Phillip asked, prompting Jennings to claim, “It sounds like a threat to me.”
While Phillip explained that Walz’s comment “might be inappropriate,” but isn’t a criminal threat, Jennings argued that Trump’s Justice Department clearly believes immigration agents in Minnesota have been “put in danger” by the alleged “incitement.”
When he told Phillip that she’s “welcome to just say things out loud” about these statements not being threats, she reminded Jennings that he doesn’t actually work for the president, “as far as I know.”
“You don’t have to defend things even when you can’t figure out what the defense is,” said Phillip. “Because to me, if you’re going to open … a criminal investigation and you can’t even point to me — if we’re talking about words, you ought to be able to just point on plain paper, what are the threats? OK? And if you can’t do it, then you can’t do it.”
If that’s the case, Phillip said, “that’s the end of the story.”
The discussion closed with Jennings — who once called Trump an “authoritarian” in 2016 but has since become an ardent supporter — telling Phillip, “You’re right, the story shouldn’t even exist. You’re right.”
“Well, Scott, I’ll let you say that,” Phillip said. “I won’t say that, but I’ll let you say that.”
