Republican CNN analyst Scott Jennings blew off the idea that Friday’s feisty town hall event with Indiana Republican Rep. Victoria Spartz on Friday represented anything other than that Democrats are showing up at Republican events specifically to get attention by making trouble.
Members of the audience at the public town hall event took to the microphones on Friday, saying that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth should be fired in the ongoing saga of the top secret war chat that took place on the Signal app with a mainstream media journalist quietly observing.
The view that Hegseth or others should be fired is widespread and loudly shared on the left and in the press, but despite the appearance of the town hall, hasn’t had the same traction on the right. Spartz was also booed over the DOGE government spending cuts that were wildly popular polling issues among Republicans throughout the campaign.
When host Laura Coates asked Jennings and the panel about the town hall during Laura Coates Live on CNN Friday, Jennings was quick to dismiss the idea that the shouts and boos are representative of a sea change within the GOP base.
Coates asked Jennings if the administration is “reading the room” incorrectly in suggesting that the secret discussion in an insecure chat in which the participants somehow didn’t notice a journalist was present is not a big deal.
“Are they reading a room full of unhinged Democrats incorrectly? No, of course not,” Jennings replied. “I mean, that’s obviously who showed up at this crazy town hall meeting. It’s who shows up at all crazy town hall meetings.”
“Despite that Spartz is a Republican — You think that she only had people who are Democrats? Let alone unhinged, as you described them,” Coates interjected.
“Yes, I believe that,” Jennings replied. He said he believes the people showing up “are the angriest Democrats you can possibly imagine, and they would like to show up and yell at any Republican they can get their hands on. It won’t be Trump and it won’t be Elon, so Victoria Spartz will be the closest thing, in this case, that they can get to it.”
COATES: Scott, the White House, as you know, has been downplaying, even saying that the media, President Trump, that was up playing all of this and saying, look, this is not the big deal that they believe the media is making it out to be. But I wonder when you hear that, are they reading the room incorrectly?
JENNINGS: Are they reading a room full of unhinged Democrats incorrectly? No, of course not. I mean, that’s obviously who showed up at this crazy town hall meeting. It’s who shows up at all crazy town hall meetings —
COATES: Despite that Spartz is a Republican —
JENNINGS: I don’t think the White House should give —
COATES: — You think that she only had people who are Democrats? Let alone unhinged, as you described them.
JENNINGS: Yes, I believe that — I believe the people who are showing up at these town hall meetings, just as Lulu said, are the angriest Democrats you can possibly imagine, and they would like to show up and yell at any Republican they can get their hands on. It won’t be Trump and it won’t be Elon, so Victoria Spartz will be the closest thing, in this case, that they can get to it.
Watch the clip above via CNN.
