As 2024 and the Biden-Harris administration are about to come to an end, Scott Jennings has been particularly busy on CNN. Jeff covered on Friday how Jennings had plenty to say about Vivek Ramaswamy's take on Americans and the immigration debate, which he continues to talk about. He also recently offered a fitting assessment of how President Joe Biden will be remembered.
During Thursday night's episode of "CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip," a report from The New York Times on how Biden did not regret debating now President-elect Donald Trump on June 27 came up.
Just as Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) said on the show a moment before, Jennings was adamant that Biden "should have never run for reelection. He also answered with an "of course" as to Phillip's point on whether or not Biden should have dropped out of the race sooner than he did, when he was finally forced out on July 21.
"When he got asked about regrets, the fact that he didn't say, I regret that 13 American service members lost their lives in Afghanistan, to me, that he can't muster the courage to say that now is a disgrace," Jennings said, though he had plenty more to bring up beyond what was arguably one of the most shameful parts of this chaotic administration.
"Beyond that, he's leaving office in disgrace. I mean, you know, you got less than 20 percent of the American people now that think the country's on the right track," Jennings also said, speaking of an issue that tripped up Vice President Kamala Harris during the few media interviews she did, and which CNN's Harry Enten referenced when previewing just days before Election Day how it wouldn't be surprising if Trump won. "That's a lower number than it even was on Election Day. And what's happened since Election Day? He pardoned his son, Hunter. He commuted the sentences of a bunch of evil killer thugs on federal death row," Jennings continued. "Not all of them, just the ones that he wanted to, didn't even make a principled stand on that. And then he went on vacation, which is where he is right now."
Biden commuted the sentences for 37 out of 40 federal death row inmates, including child murderers. He did not commute the sentences for those involved in "terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder." Biden also recently left for St. Croix, having spent approximately 40 percent of his presidency on vacation.
"This is a failed, disgraced president and he has never ever owned up to what happened in Afghanistan and the role that played in destroying those families' lives and destroying his own presidency," Jennings said to conclude such a point, once more bringing it back to Afghanistan.
Immediately after, The Philadelphia Inquirer's Solomon Jones jumped in to bring up an unrelated and false point about Trump. "So, I think Donald Trump needs to say I'm sorry that a million people died in COVID while I was telling people to shine light in their bodies and take disinfectant," he insisted, which Jennings repeatedly reminded was "false."
Lawler also jumped in, reminding how "people told us to stand six feet apart and wear masks, and that didn't exactly solve anything."
🚨Scott Jennings unloads on Biden’s disastrous presidency: "This is a failed, disgraced president."
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) December 27, 2024
"When he got asked about regrets, the fact that he didn't say, I regret that 13 American service members lost their lives in Afghanistan, to me, that he can't muster the courage… pic.twitter.com/UnmCVBDsyv
Phillip shifted gears not long after that, but not before the congressman offered a fitting reply on why it is that Trump's detractors need to make Biden's failed legacy about the president-elect.
"So, look at the end of the day here, you can make this all about Donald Trump. Donald Trump got reelected because Joe Biden was such a disaster on so many fronts," Lawler offered. "But the fact is, as Scott pointed out, and we had Antony Blinken testified before us finally about the disastrous withdrawal in Afghanistan just two weeks ago, and I showed him the report, the 300-plus page report, and I said, sir, this is your legacy. This is your legacy. You own it. You own everything that has resulted from that disastrous withdrawal, starting with the 13 U.S. service members who died. And the fact is, Kamala Harris, the vice president of the United States, still has not met with those Gold Star families," he said, also bringing up Afghanistan, referencing complaints that these Gold Star families themselves have mentioned.
Lawler also reminded how much the Biden-Harris administration failed on foreign policy overall, not merely with Afghanistan. "That is the legacy of this administration, and everything that followed from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the terrorist attack on Israel, the threats in the Indo-Pacific from China, the illicit oil trade to the tune of $200 billion between China and Iran that funds Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, that is their legacy, and Joe Biden owns that. And Scott's right, that should be his biggest regret," he continued.
It's also worth reminding that Thursday night was hardly the only time that Jennings has issued warnings about the kind of legacy Biden will leave behind. During such an appearance he mentioned the president pardoning his son, Hunter, which he also spoke out against strongly when it happened at the start of this month. Such a pardon came despite how Biden and White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre repeatedly claimed he would not do so, with a particularly high and questionable amount of pardons following not long after, as well as those commutations of death row inmates that Jennings also addressed.