CNN’s Scott Jennings Slammed as ‘Increasingly Demented’ After Debates Spiral Out of Control

CNN’s Scott Jennings Slammed as ‘Increasingly Demented’ After Debates Spiral Out of Control

Martin Holmes

Tue, January 20, 2026 at 1:51 PM UTC

3 min read

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It’s not been a good start to the week for CNN’s Scott Jennings, who has been attacked both online and on the air.

On Monday’s (January 19) edition of CNN NewsNight, Jennings was called out by guest Cameron Kasky, a Parkland school shooting survivor and gun control activist. The debate grew tense as the panel discussed the presence of ICE agents in Minnesota following the fatal shooting of Minneapolis woman Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent.

After Jennings used the term “illegals” to refer to those targeted by ICE, Kasky fired back, saying, per Mediaite, “You don’t get to say the word ‘illegals’ anymore.”

“I don’t?” Jennings replied. “Who are you to tell me what I can and can’t? I’ve never met you, brother. I can say whatever I want. They’re illegal aliens, and that’s what the law calls them, illegal aliens. That’s what I’m gonna call them.”

Kasky explained, “You can’t say ‘illegals’ anymore, because ICE is directly targeting legal citizens of this country.”

“How are you gonna enforce your edict on me, just out of curiosity?” Jennings retorted.

Kasky said he understands that Jennings’ job “is predicated on just getting increasingly more demented every single week” and that he believes the conservative pundit knows what’s happening and is “doing this on purpose.”

The two then went back and forth on whether ICE is targeting natural-born U.S. citizens, with Kasky saying they are and Jennings repeatedly telling him, “They are not.”

Kasky wasn’t the only guest Jennings got into it with on Monday’s show. He also drew the ire of Leigh McGowan — known online as “PoliticsGirl” — when discussing the Justice Department’s ongoing delay in releasing the rest of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

Jennings said the DOJ, who is over a month past the mandated deadline to release the files, should follow the law, but also played down the delay, saying “let’s not get our knickers in a twist.”

McGowan mocked Jennings’ response, sarcastically saying, “Yeah, let’s not get our knickers in a twist over child rape, ha ha ha.”

“Why are you talking like that? It’s insane. Your attitude is just horrifying,” she continued. “Everything that is in these files—it could bring an entire house down… If it brings down Democrats, bring them down. If it brings down Republicans, bring them down. Bring down princes, world leaders, Hollywood people, bring them down. But what it feels like right now is that there’s a giant cabal of people that do not have to listen to the law.”

The tense edition of NewsNight came just hours after CNN regular Julie Roginsky tore into Jennings in a scathing Substack post where she referred to him an “insecure little boy” and called out CNN for continuing to give him a platform.

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