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Scott Jennings Offers Strong Words on Democrats' Absurd Claim That Elon Musk Is a 'Shadow President'

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  December 20, 2024 5:15 PM

Democrats have come up with the wild new conspiracy theory that Elon Musk is actually the co-president and calling the shots, as opposed to President-elect Donald Trump. This is all because he dared to use his platform of X to amplify his opposition and that of the American people to the over 1,500 page spending bill that had been released on Tuesday night and has since failed. CNN also discussed such a theory on Thursday, with Scott Jennings weighing in on multiple programs.

"CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip" began with Phillip framing the spending bill fight in such a matter as one where "there is no solution in sight after Donald Trump and Elon Musk blew up a bipartisan spending bill." Although "Plan B" failed on Thursday night, it looks like Republicans have since come up with and are trying to figure out a "Plan C." There's also an interim spending bill being debated. 

Phillip also brought up how Democrats have been using the term "President Musk," with Jennings in response pointing out, "it's not the tweets. It's the reaction." 

"I talked to a member of Congress today who told me that when the tweets started, immediately, people from their own district started calling and asking questions about what are you spending my money on? What's going on here? It's not the tweets," Jennings further explained. "It is how people are reacting. And when they find out what's going on in Washington, then they pick up the phone. It's not the tweets. It's the people," he emphasized. 

The panel discussion continued to discuss Musk daring to use his platform, with Jennings offering that if Musk "gives information to people that they didn't previously have, or some transparency into our government, and they act on it, is that necessarily a bad thing? I might offer that." Geoff Duncan, the former lieutenant governor of Georgia shared his view that "that's a great idea."

The Grio's Michael Harriot and Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky took issue with Musk using his platform in such a way, though, with Harriot mocking him. Roginsky also claimed Musk is using his platform "to gin up people... because it doesn't directly benefit Elon Musk."

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Jennings aptly warned her, though, that she was making "a serious allegation... essentially alleging corruption," which Roginsky denied, as she claimed that "Elon Musk has a particular interest in seeing certain things happen that benefit Elon Musk's business. And that's a fact. He's a businessman," even going on to claim that he's "puppeteering."

"In October, the principal Democratic argument was, Donald Trump is going to be a dictator, and today it's Donald Trump is just being puppeteered by other people," Jennings pointed out with laughter at the Democrats' shifting narrative. "Which is it? Which is it?"

Roginsky tried to argue "it can be both" before they cut to commercial. 

That's not the end of the discussion when it comes to concerns about a "co-president," though. Earlier in the week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who has been speaking out about what she says are conflicts of interest from Musk, doubled down on such concerns by posting over X that Musk was the "co-president."

It's particularly absurd to go with such an argument, given concerns about President Joe Biden and his diminishing mental faculties. These have only been further confirmed this week with reports from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, with Jennings referencing the latter multiple times. "CNN NewsNight" did an entire segment on that.

Earlier in the show, Jennings and Phillip touched upon the WSJ report, with Jennings pointing out that "I am not going to accept any criticism about unelected people having influence over the presidency," citing the report to point out "that the president has not been functional for four years." 

Concerns about Biden also came up when Jennings appeared on "Erin Burnett Outfront" and responded to comments from Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA). The far-left congresswoman referred to Musk as "President Musk" and lamented how he "tweeted about" his opposition to the CR. This wasn't a one-time slip, though, as she also referred to Musk as "a shadow president."

"What I'm concerned about is that a billionaire who is not even elected is acting like a like a shadow president and doing the work that Republicans have to do here. They are in the majority," she said. This was before she even bothered to answer the question Burnett asked, which is if she's concerned that Democrats will get blamed for a shutdown, which she claims she's not. 

There were more telling responses, though. Towards the end of their conversation, Burnett asked if she was "shocked by the speed with which Musk has taken control of the Republican Party?"

"Yeah, I'm shocked by the speed with which Donald Trump has ceded control to Elon Musk. I mean, this is a real crisis in my mind for Donald Trump, who's the president right now, who's going to be the president or who's the president-elect, I should say, and who's going to be the president come -- come the New Year," the congresswoman offered in part.

Jennings was asked to respond to the congresswoman's remarks, and how she put the blame first on Musk and then Trump. 

"Well, she let the mask slip right at the end. She said, who's the president right now? I mean, who's the president-elect? But she asked the right question first, who is the president right now? Joe Biden, who we rarely hear from in The Wall Street Journal reported today, has been diminished for the last four years, and we've had unelected people running around running the federal government, apparently," Jennings pointed out. "So if that is what they're worried about, if they're worried about people who aren't Donald Trump, you know, running the government or having influence, I wonder where they've been the last four years."

"Now, this doesn't excuse anybody's behavior on Capitol Hill tonight," said on Thursday, "but I think its pretty rich for Democrats to be worried about people who aren't Donald Trump having influence when the current president, a Democrat, is AWOL and apparently not able to execute the duties of the office." Even Burnett responded in part by acknowledging she doesn't know the level that Biden is involved. 

It's not merely that it's ridiculous to refer to Musk as a co-president or even the president when we have reports such as the one from The Wall Street Journal, which Warren and Jayapal seem to be conveniently ignoring.