\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s in Scott is a deep respect for everyday people, a desire to not just agitate, but to educate the person he\u2019s talking to about a different point of view,\u201d Jones adds of his colleague. He also commended Jennings for continuing to show support for Israeli hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza by donning a yellow ribbon pin in every segment.<\/p>\n
Axelrod, who Jennings says is his closest friend<\/a> from his tenure at CNN thus far, praised the pundit for his ability to cut \u201cissues in ways that are provocative and go viral,\u201d adding that Jennings has \u201ccreated these \u2018own the libs,\u2019 kind of freewheeling moments, particularly on some of these panels.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t always love what he does on TV,\u201d says Axelrod, \u201cbut [that\u2019s] not the whole of how I judge him.\u201d<\/p>\n Before making the MAGA case on CNN, Jennings had taken a more traditional path<\/a> through Republican politics, working for the likes of George W. Bush, Mitt Romney,<\/strong> and Mitch McConnell.<\/strong> During the 2016 race, Jennings referred<\/a> to Trump in a column as \u201cauthoritarian\u201d and called<\/a> out his \u201cvulgar\u201d and \u201ccrude\u201d behavior in another, examples that were pointed out in a Washington Post<\/em> profile<\/a> of Jennings, which noted he \u201cchanged his tune after Trump took office.\u201d<\/p>\n Jennings says Trump has altered the trajectory of the Republican Party by not adhering to \u201cconservative orthodoxy\u201d on the issues that have shaped the party\u2019s platform. Sometimes on air, that manifests in a fierce defense of the president-elect. Jennings took it upon himself to back Trump\u2019s controversial pick<\/a> to lead the Department of Defense, former Fox News host Pete Hegseth.<\/strong> Jennings slammed<\/a> the current Pentagon leadership, saying, \u201cI\u2019ve had just about enough of the so-called insiders running the defense department.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, he\u2019s on TV, but so are the rest of us,\u201d he pointed out, pushing back against his colleagues\u2019 assertion that Hegseth lacks government experience.<\/p>\n There was chatter about Jennings himself joining the Trump administration. He was rumored<\/a> to be on a short list of candidates to serve as the White House press secretary, a job that ultimately went to<\/a> Karoline Leavitt.<\/strong> Jennings tells me he was not \u201cactively seeking\u201d a role in the administration and wasn\u2019t behind any campaign suggesting his candidacy. \u201cI have no plans to join the Trump administration right now,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n The press secretary gig would be one in which Jennings presumably couldn\u2019t break with Trump\u2014something he says he\u2019s willing to do on CNN. \u201cThere have been times when he has done things, said things, that I didn\u2019t agree with, and I\u2019ve not been shy about saying that on the air,\u201d he says. Following Trump\u2019s appearance earlier this year at the National Association of Black Journalists conference, where Trump questioned Vice President Kamala Harris<\/strong>\u2019s race, Jennings did not mince words, saying that Trump did \u201ccrap the bed\u201d during the interview<\/a>: \u201cThe only question is whether he\u2019s going to roll around in it or change the sheets.\u201d Axelrod also believes Jennings isn\u2019t \u201cblindly defending everything Trump does.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe have free speech in this country, and we have free debate, and we all have to collectively make decisions about how we\u2019re going to govern ourselves,\u201d says Jennings, stressing the need for debating issues in \u201can honest and open format.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think CNN is doing that,\u201d he says. \u201cI think the LA Times<\/em> could do that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen Patrick told me what his vision was for the newspaper\u2014report the news and have a balanced editorial page\u2014I thought that\u2019s exactly what media should be,\u201d Jennings says, adding that he doesn\u2019t understand \u201cwhat\u2019s so controversial about that.\u201d<\/p>\n But Soon-Shiong\u2019s shake-up at the Times<\/em> has been \u201ccontroversial,\u201d as his Times<\/em> itself described<\/a> it this past weekend. Since the Harris endorsement imbroglio, the Times<\/em> has seen a steady wave of opinion section departures<\/a>, leaving only one of the original board members remaining<\/a>; meanwhile, the Times<\/em> reported, an estimated 20,000 subscribers dropped the paper. Oliver Darcy,<\/strong> who has been reporting on upheaval inside the Times,<\/em> framed<\/a> Soon-Shiong\u2019s actions atop Monday\u2019s \u201cStatus\u201d newsletter as \u201cMeddling for MAGA.\u201d<\/p>\n The Times<\/em> owner touched on the opinion resignations in our interview, saying that \u201cit was clear that there were very strong feelings about this idea of having a balanced viewpoint.\u201d Soon-Shiong says that he felt that the editorial board was \u201cveering very progressive,\u201d and in his mind \u201cit was really not healthy just to have what I call an echo chamber of a single view and almost canceling, so to speak, the views of both sides.\u201d<\/p>\n Soon-Shiong says he is working through a list of around 20 to 25 candidates \u201cacross the spectrum from left, center, to right,\u201d who he is contacting personally with a potential opportunity to join the restructured editorial board. While he declined to share any names on the list, Soon-Shiong says it will likely be announced early 2025, once the board is full of new contributors. Jennings\u2019s role, it should be noted, is not a staff position.<\/p>\n \u201cI think what he wants to do is kind of visionary, truthfully,\u201d Jennings tells me of Soon-Shiong\u2019s plans. \u201cThe editorial board should not be an echo chamber. There should be views that represent all of America.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n