Jones added of his colleague: “What lies behind Scott is a deep respect for ordinary people, a desire not just to provoke but to educate the person he is talking to about a different point of view. . He also praised Jennings for continuing to show support for the Israeli hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza by wearing a yellow ribbon pin in every segment.
Axelrod, who Jennings said was his closest friend friend from his tenure at CNN to date, praised the pundit for his ability to cut through “issues in a provocative and viral way,” adding that Jennings has “created liberating moments ‘on its own’, especially on some films. these plates.”
“I don’t always like what he does on TV, but,” Axelrod said [that’s] not the whole way I rate him.”
Before making the MAGA case on CNN, Jennings made one more traditional route through Republican politics, working for people like George W. Bush, Mitt Romney, And Mitch McConnell. In the 2016 race, Jennings is introduced called Trump in a column “dictatorial” and call demonstrating one’s “vulgar” and “coarse” behavior in another person, examples of which have been shown in a Washington Post file by Jennings, which noted that he “changed his views after Trump took office.”
Jennings said Trump changed the trajectory of the Republican Party by bucking “conservative orthodoxy” on issues that have shaped the party’s platform. Sometimes on air, that manifests itself in a fierce defense of the president-elect. Jennings has endorsed Trump himself controversial choice leader of the Ministry of Defense, former Fox News host Pete Hegseth. Jennings slam current leader of the Pentagon, said, “I’ve had enough of the so-called insiders running the defense department.”
“Yes, he’s on TV, but so are the rest of us,” he pointed out, pushing back against his colleagues’ assertion that Hegseth lacks experience in government.
There have been rumors about Jennings himself joining the Trump administration. He was rumor was on the short list of candidates for White House press secretary, a job that ultimately fell through. ARRIVE Karoline Levitt. Jennings told me he is not “actively seeking” a role in the administration and is not behind any campaign proposing his candidacy. “I have no plans to join the Trump administration right now,” he added.
The press secretary gig would be one where Jennings probably couldn’t break up with Trump — something he said he was willing to do on CNN. “There were times when he did things and said things that I didn’t agree with and I wasn’t afraid to say that on television,” he said. Following Trump’s appearance earlier this year at the National Association of Black Journalists conference, where Trump questioned the Vice President Kamala HarrisOf his race, Jennings did not mince words, saying Trump had been “crap” throughout the race interview: “The only question is whether he will roll around in it or change the sheets.” Axelrod also believes that Jennings does not “blindly defend everything Trump does.”
“We have the right to free speech in this country, we have the right to free debate, and we all have to make collective decisions about how we are going to govern ourselves,” Jennings said. .”
“I think CNN is doing that,” he said. “I think LA Times can do that.”
“When Patrick told me his vision for the paper—covering the news and having a balanced editorial page—I thought that was exactly what media should be,” Jennings said and adding that he doesn’t understand “what’s controversial about that. ”
But Soon-Shiong’s change now time was “controversial” like his time it describes itself it this past weekend. Since the Harris endorsement debacle, time has seen a steady wave of opinions departleaving only one of the original board members remaining; meanwhile, time report, an estimated 20,000 subscribers dropped out of the newspaper. Oliver Darcy, who reported on the upheavals inside time, framed Soon-Shiong’s actions on Monday’s “Status” news were “MAGA Interference.”
the time the owner mentioned taking a stand in our interview, saying “there are obviously very strong feelings about this idea of having a balanced view.” Soon-Shiong says he feels the editorial board is “moving in a very progressive direction” and that in his mind “it’s really unhealthy to have what I call an echo chamber of a single perspective and almost cancels out, so to speak, the positions of both sides.”
Soon-Shiong said he is working on a list of about 20 to 25 candidates “left, center, right,” whom he is contacting personally for the opportunity to join the restructured editorial board . While declining to share any names on the list, Soon-Shiong said the list will likely be announced in early 2025, when the board is full of new contributors. It should be noted that Jennings’ role is not a staff position.
“Honestly, I think what he wants to do is have a vision,” Jennings told me of Soon-Shiong’s plans. “The editorial board should not be an echo chamber. There needs to be perspectives that represent all of America.”
