“What defines Scott is a deep respect for ordinary people, a desire not just to upset but to educate the person he’s talking to about a different point of view,” Jones adds of his colleague. He also praised Jennings for continuing to show his support for the Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza by wearing a yellow pin in each segment.

Axelrod, who Jennings said was his closest friend since his previous tenure at CNN, praised the pundit for his ability to “solve issues in a provocative and viral way,” adding that Jennings “created these ‘own libraries.’ “There are certain moments of freewheeling, particularly in some of these panels.”

“I don’t always like what he does on TV,” says Axelrod, “but that’s not the whole way I judge him.”

Before Jennings made the MAGA case on CNN, he had taken a more traditional path in Republican politics, working for people like George W. Bush, Mitt Romney, And Mitch McConnell. During the 2016 race, Jennings called Trump “authoritarian” in one column and cited his “vulgar” and “coarse” behavior in another, examples pointed out in a column Washington Post Profile of Jennings that said he “changed his tune after Trump took office.”

Jennings says Trump changed the trajectory of the Republican Party by not adhering to “conservative orthodoxy” on the issues that shaped the party’s platform. Sometimes this manifests itself on the show in a fierce defense of the president-elect. Jennings has made it his mission to support Trump’s controversial election as head of the Defense Department, said the former Fox News host Pete Hegseth. Jennings criticized the Pentagon’s current leadership, saying, “I’m fed up with the so-called insiders running the Department of Defense.”

“Yes, he’s on TV, but so are the rest of us,” he emphasized, countering his colleagues’ claims that Hegseth lacked government experience.

There was talk of Jennings himself joining the Trump administration. He was rumored to be on a shortlist of candidates for the post of White House press secretary, a job he eventually got Caroline Leavitt. Jennings tells me he wasn’t “actively” seeking a role in the administration, nor was he behind a campaign that suggested his candidacy. “I have no plans to join the Trump administration at this time,” he added.

The press secretary gig would be one in which Jennings would likely not be able to break with Trump – something he is willing to do, according to CNN. “There were times when he did and said things that I didn’t agree with, and I wasn’t afraid to say that on TV,” he says. After Trump’s appearance earlier this year at the National Association of Black Journalists conference, where Trump questioned the vice president Kamala HarrisJennings didn’t mince his words, saying that Trump “shit the bed” during the interview: “The only question is whether he’s going to roll around in it or change the sheets.” Axelrod also believes that Jennings isn’t “blindly blind to everything defends what Trump is doing.”

“We have free speech in this country and we have free debate, and we all have to make decisions together about how we govern ourselves,” Jennings says, emphasizing the need to discuss issues “in an honest and open format.”

“I think CNN does that,” he says. “I think that L.A. Times could do that.”

“When Patrick told me what his vision was for the newspaper — to cover the news and have a balanced editorial side — I thought that’s what media should be,” Jennings says, adding that he doesn’t understand “what “That’s what’s so controversial.” ”

But Soon-Shiong’s turmoil on Just was, like his, “controversial.” Just himself described it last weekend. Since the Harris recommendation fuss, the Just has seen a steady wave of departures from the opinion department, leaving only one of the original board members remaining; meanwhile, the Just An estimated 20,000 subscribers reportedly dropped the paper. Oliver Darcy, who reported on internal upheavals Just, referred to Soon-Shiong’s actions as “MAGA interference” at the top of Monday’s Status newsletter.

The Just The owner addressed the pushbacks in our interview, saying, “It was clear that there were very strong feelings about this idea of ​​a balanced view.” Soon-Shiong says he felt the editorial team was “very progressive.” was, and in his opinion, “it really wasn’t healthy to just have what I call an echo chamber of a single point of view and almost nullify, so to speak, the views of both sides.”

Soon-Shiong says he is working through a list of about 20 to 25 candidates “from across the spectrum from left to center to right” who he is personally contacting with a potential chance of joining the restructured editorial board. Although he declined to name any names on the list, Soon-Shiong says it will likely be announced in early 2025 once the board is full of new contributors. It should be noted that Jennings’ role is not a staff position.

“I think what he wants to do is truly visionary,” Jennings tells me of Soon-Shiong’s plans. “The editorial team shouldn’t be an echo chamber. There should be views that represent all of America.”