As President Biden’s blunders flood the news, CNN Newsroom host Jim Acosta tried to switch the conversation back to Donald Trump on Thursday. As the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 has been used to fearmonger in the past few weeks, Scott Jennings, political commentator for the network, took to the air to defend Trump, calling out Acosta’s agenda and the left in one fell swoop.
Following a “detailed” look at Project 2025, Acosta questioned Jennings on the number of conservatives who are part of the project:
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 convention goers. What's going on – why is Trump – why are his advisors trying to distance themselves from the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025?
Jennings, calling out the simpleminded argument of Acosta, stated plainly, “They're not the president, they're not running for president. Heritage Foundation doesn't appear on the ballot. The people working on this don't appear on the ballot.”
It is not surprising that conservatives, being of a common mind, would be in similar circles. Yet, they aren’t synonymous, a point Acosta does not understand, so it fell to Jennings to educate him:
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, at least that used to be the case today, With Joe Biden, I'm not so sure given the reporting about how he's out to lunch or whatever. But in this case, Donald Trump will ultimately decide what his agenda is. And that's why the RNC put out a platform.
With nothing better to cover, and the issue of Biden’s clear and prevalent inadequacies taking too much time from the usual conservative critiques, the liberal media has resorted to mediocre stories. Jennings also pointed out the hypocrisy of Acosta’s point:
If the Democrats want to play this game, though, I think they should be prepared to own every single policy proposal ever issued by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the rest of The Squad, Bernie Sanders, 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. 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 2025, then they can own Defund the Police and we'll see how the American people sort it out.
Acosta had no response to Jennings, shifting back to his liberal colleague for another question.
The transcript is below, click “expand” to read:
CNN Newsroom with Jim Acosta
7/11/2024
10:09:36 AM -10:11:10 AM EST
(…)
[NEWS HEADLINE ~ Trump Claims Not To Know Anyone Behind Project 2025; CNN Finds 140+ People Worked For Him Are Involved]
JIM ACOSTA: Scott, let's talk about Project 2025 as Steve Contorno was saying a few moments ago, 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 convention goers. 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
SCOTT JENNINGS: Because they're not the president, they're not running for president. 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. At least that used to be the case today, with Joe Biden, I'm not so sure given the reporting about how he's out to lunch or whatever. But in this case Donald Trump will ultimately decide what his agenda is. And that's why the RNC put out a platform.
If the Democrats want to play this game though, I think they should be prepared to own every single policy proposal ever issued by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the rest of the squad, Bernie Sanders, 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.
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 2025, then they can own Defund the Police and we'll see how the American people sort it out.
(…)
