CNN's Scott Jennings Offers Voice of Reason to Crazed January 6 Panel

Michael Wnek
January 6th, 2025 9:06 PM
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CNN’s live coverage of Congress’s election certification on Monday included panel after panel of hosts and commentators bizarrely reminiscing about the dramatic events of January 6, 2021. Amid the faux hysterics, sympathy for Vice President Kamala Harris, and somber attitudes, senior political commentator Scott Jennings prevailed as a voice of reason, providing some much-needed reality checks to his fellow panelists.

Inside Politics and State of the Union co-host Dana Bash started off with a supportive nod to Harris, who was “steeling herself” for “presiding over her own loss,” before turning to Jake Tapper, whose ego had him harkening back to a prediction he made four years ago. 

He declared his 2021 remark “really required no great prescience” and was “very easy to predict,” referring to his expectation of the attempt to whitewash the riot. Tapper further insisted that “for millions of Americans, it worked,” while Kaitlan Collins quickly agreed that “anyone would argue” the alleged whitewashing “was very successful.”

Jennings, on the other hand, proposed that the event would be remembered in its proper context, namely within the last eight years since President Trump’s first term in 2016. However, he pointed out the significance of Trump’s reelection and the fact that “the American people went scrambling back to Donald Trump.”

Highlighting the positivity of this year’s certification process going uninterrupted by a Democratic challenge, which had occurred in the case of every Republican win since 1988, Jennings suggested that “maybe we’ve gotten off the slippery slope of one side or the other not accepting the outcome of an election.”

Former Congressman Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) pushed back, distinguishing between the resistance from the Democratic Party in past years and the “terrible leadership and convincing people of lies” coming from Republicans.

He further justified himself by adding that “if I believed an election was stolen, I would have been on the steps of the Capitol that day because we're a country that believes we should have a voice heard.”

Later, Tapper emphasized Harris’s apparently incredible integrity because she was not “pushing forward deranged conspiracy theories” like the ones he found on a progressive social media site he was exploring “against [his] better judgment.”

John King proceeded to fangirl over Harris in what he must have hoped was a stirring tribute to her evidently vast accomplishment: 

She just won 75 million votes. She just got 48.4% of the vote in the country. She just raised a billion dollars. She's a black woman, popular with the foundational base of the Democratic party, which is black women…The question I have about politicians is do they learn from their mistakes and their environment. She did not lose because of her mistakes. She made some. She also had 100 plus days to do something that normally people spend four, five, six, ten years preparing for.

Clearly, Jake Tapper has not fully realized the terrible mistake of flirting with potentially damaging false claims since he falsely accused Texas Senator Ted Cruz (R) of being “one of the main individuals who helped cause what happened four years ago by putting forward the falsehood that the vice president could somehow do something to stop the electoral count.” His spokesman had this retort:

Of course, that could not be further from the truth since Cruz had actually proposed the appointment of an electoral commission to investigate the significant claims of fraud following the results of the 2020 election. No doubt Tapper forgot to do his research on CNN’s own reporting of Cruz’s initiative.

For his part, Jennings maintained the importance of “arrang[ing]our feelings and control[ing] ourselves accordingly here,” adding that “we have heard some people in other venues say extraordinarily unhinged and vile things, comparing January 6th to the Holocaust, to slavery, to World War II” in reference to moments like this one from ABC’s The View.

 

 

Jennings concluded that Democrats had stalled their own progress as a party by putting “most of their eggs in the January 6th basket” while Republicans had moved on from that event to realize their plans for a better future.

The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:

CNN January 6th: Congress Certifies the Election

01/06/2025

12:00:40 PM EST

DANA BASH: Right, I was told by a source familiar with her thinking – Jake, I'm gonna throw it back to you–that she is steeling herself for this moment where she is going to be presiding over her own loss.

(...)

12:02:53 PM EST

JAKE TAPPER: It’s really difficult to think about the majesty of this day without reflecting upon what happened four years ago. Jeff talked about whitewashing. I want to run a little clip from four years ago–which really required no great prescience by me–but it was ongoing when it was very–and very easy to predict. If we can run that clip. This is four years ago.

[Cuts to video]

[from 01/06/21] I want people to remember how they feel watching these images of the United States Capitol being taken over, and this–these clear acts of sedition and violence and terrorism by Trump supporters, because there's going to be an attempt to whitewash and pretend this didn't happen.

[Cuts back to live]

There’s gonna be an attempt to whitewash and pretend this didn't happen, and in fact, there was. And for millions of Americans, it worked.

KAITLAN COLLINS: It was very successful, I think anyone would argue if you're a critic of Trump's or a fan of his. And I was thinking, you know, as you look at the contrast of four years ago and today, it really could not be clearer especially how Trump himself and those around him view it.

(...)

12:23:12 PM EST

SCOTT JENNINGS: Yeah, I think it’ll be remembered but I don't think it's going to be remembered singularly. I think it's going to be remembered in the context of the last eight years: four years of Trump, four years of Biden. I mean, the fact is it happened. It was a terrible day. Violence, political violence should never be condoned. And then we live through four years of Biden's presidency, and the American people went scrambling back to Donald Trump. They chose to analyze two presidencies, which included one day and a whole bunch of other policy decisions, and they went back to Trump. 

The other thing about this day, and about this election, that I think is noteworthy and actually positive is this. It's not been since 1988 that Democrats have not challenged a Republican win on the floor of the House when trying to count the votes. I have never had an election in my adult professional career in which both sides basically accepted it without too much grumbling. Obviously, '00 and '04, Democrats didn't accept Bush. There were Republicans who didn't accept Obama. We know Democrats still think Russia stole the election in ‘16. We know what happened in 2020. 

This time around, it seems to me most people have accepted the results of the election. Also, the Electoral Reform Count Act passed in 2022, clarifying that the vice president only has ministerial duty, so that’s gonna go off without a hitch today. it feels like maybe we’ve gotten off the slippery slope of one side or the other not accepting the outcome of an election. So, in its totality over the last quarter-century, I tend to think that's a good thing.

(...)

12:24:43 PM EST

FORMER REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R): I was just gonna say, you know, look, I get it and I agree that in the long run–I think that the days of, you know, January 6th fights are probably going to be over. We did a great thing with the Electoral Count Act Reform, but we have to be very careful. We can't put Democrats–and I was against them doing it when they did it, obviously, against Democrats opposing the election–we can't put that on the same level as what happened on January 6th. 

It's one thing for a few people to say we're going to vote against certification of this election. Once it hit critical mass in the Democrats, I'm pretty sure if it hit critical mass, the leadership would have come out and said, “No, we can't do this.” Instead, Republican leadership, like Kevin McCarthy, shocked us all on January 1st on a phone call when he said he as well is going to object to the certification of this election. And when he did that, that's when I predicted that day there’ll be violence on the 6th because you're convincing half the country an election was stolen. 

And by the way, Scott, if I believed an election was stolen, I would have been on the steps of the Capitol that day because we're a country that believes we should have a voice heard. And that's the danger of terrible leadership and convincing people of lies.

(...)

12:46:55 PM EST

TAPPER: And just to underline that point, in 2004, there were all sorts of conspiracy theories on the left, led by Robert Kennedy Jr. for one, that Ohio had been stolen. And against my better judgment, I went onto a progressive social media site last night, and they're out there about this election too, that this was a hacked election. I mean, the difference is, of course, that Kamala Harris is not leading the charge in pushing forward these deranged conspiracy theories.

JOHN KING: No, she will ignore the fringe and the conspiracy, where Donald Trump has invited them from the edge to the middle of his world, actually. His orbit is full of people who peddle conspiracy theories. 

(...)

12:47:43 PM EST

KING: What next for Kamala Harris? If you talk to people in this town, most Democrats say, “Oh, you know, go away, if you want to run for governor of California, fine. Please don't run for president again.” I would remind you, and you made the point earlier, on this day four years ago, everyone said Donald Trump was done. So discount her as a potential nominee four years from now, or at least a player in that, at your peril. 

She just won 75 million votes. She just got 48.4% of the vote in the country. She just raised a billion dollars. She's a black woman, popular with the foundational base of the Democratic party, which is black women. She has giant problems. She has giant problems. She did not learn to speak to working class Americans about their cost of living and about their disaffection with this town. She's viewed by many as a quote unquote “coastal elite.” 

She has a lot of problems. Donald Trump had more when he left this town four years ago. The question I have about politicians is do they learn from their mistakes and their environment. She did not lose because of her mistakes. She made some. She also had 100 plus days to do something that normally people spend four, five, six, ten years preparing for.

JAMIE GANGEL: It’s obviou–losing is not fun, and that's what is going, you know, she's going to certify today, but she's not alone. You made the point in Al Gore had to do it with a very bitter race, with George W. Bush. And Richard Nixon lost to JFK. So she's not the first vice president to lose.

(...)

01:01:39 PM EST

TAPPER: Right now you're looking at images from the floor of the House of Representatives. Members of the House and Senate are gathering in what is their–and there is the Speaker, Mike Johnson, and Vice President Kamala Harris. It's obviously a bipartisan or even nonpartisan event, where the leaders of this country come together to count the electoral votes. 

There's Ted Cruz, a senator from Texas, who was one of the main individuals who helped cause what happened four years ago by putting forward the falsehood that the vice president could somehow do something to stop the electoral count. There's Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries with Katherine Clark, his number two. What are your thoughts as you watch this in action?

COLLINS: Ted Cruz obviously was the first senator to object, and obviously, just looking back on this, what the vice president maintained at the time, as Marc knows well, is he did not have the power to block the certification on this day four years ago.

TAPPER: And he didn't.

COLLINS: What we have seen is the Electoral Count Act that was passed reaffirming that interpretation of the law so people like John Eastman, who Pence later referred to as a crackpot of attorneys, that Trump was listening to at the time, could not make that argument. But also it changed the threshold for how many people have to object to lead to that moment. Even if we were in the exact same situation as four years ago, had this law been passed, the threshold would have had to have been much higher than what it was four years ago for that to happen.

TAPPER: Marc Short, are you able to look at Ted Cruz without thinking about January 6th?

MARC SHORT: Sure. Jake, because honestly, I think what Ted Cruz is doing was advocating, I may not agree there was evident of any sort of theft in that election, but it is their right to raise an objection. That's different than coming forth with the suggestion the vice president has this unilateral authority to reject certificates. So even though they passed the new legislation in 2022, I think the vice president's role has been black and white clear for 250 years of our republic. So I don't think there's really that much question of what the vice president's role was on that day, and that's the same role vice presidents have executed since the beginning of our republic.

(...)

01:14:09 PM EST

JENNINGS: In light of all the rhetoric and things we're going to hear people say today is that ultimately, it was the American people that got to decide, ultimately, how we feel collectively as a country about January 6th. And already today, we have heard some people in other venues say extraordinarily unhinged and vile things, comparing January 6th to the Holocaust, to slavery, to World War II.

I think we need to arrange our feelings and control ourselves accordingly here, and not go off the deep end. It was not a good day. Political violence cannot be condoned, but we can also be measured in how we view it in light of the rest of American and world history. What's happening today is ultimately a good thing because both parties, for the first time in my adult life, are accepting the results of an election. And that is ultimately putting this country on the right tracks. I just think people oughta really take stock of our feelings and not get out over our skis too much today and minimizing other world events and comparing them to January the 6th.

KINZINGER: Just a quick point. Both parties have always accepted the presidential election until one…

JENNINGS: False.

KENZINGER: …four years ago. No!

JENNINGS: They have not.

KENZINGER: No! Scott…

JENNINGS: They have not.

KENZINGER: Members of some of the Democratic Party, yes, I agree with that, but saying the party? I have never seen the speaker or the leaders of the Democrats object to a presidential election. There is a massive difference, and don't try to put these on the same thing. Look, I agree they shouldn't have done it, but to say…

[Crosstalk]

JENNINGS: But they did object. You admit they objected.

ASHLEY ALLISON: I think, though, this is why we are where we are in this country. I think we're drawing false parallels to things that are happening in history. Look, in 2000, that was the first election. I was in Ohio, the place–ground zero of people questioning. It was the first election I ever got to vote in. I was greatly disappointed and I thought what happened in Florida with hanging chads was wrong. 

But I didn't storm the Capitol because I was an adult that accepted the results of the election and the will of the people, whether I thought that some things had gone a little awry. That's not what happened on January 6th and I don't think it's fair to draw the parallels that it was. I also think that showing this is really important–I used to be a former school teacher–and I think that we're in a moment right now in our country where information is being disseminated in ways where we do sometimes draw false parallels. 

And so showing what actually happens, showing the checks and balances and explaining why January 6th is not the same as when other times in history people have asked questions about the election is really important for this upcoming generation that may have questions about the fragility of our democracy.

(...)

01:29:37 PM EST

JENNINGS: It's possible for voters to take in lots of different information, whether it's about what they saw on January 6th or what they lived there for the next four years and synthesize all of that and make decisions. Ultimately, the Democrats in this election put all of their eggs, or most of their eggs, in the January 6th basket and Republicans put all their eggs into the future, that we get control the economy and get things back in order in your life.

(...)

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