Scott Jennings battles entire CNN panel over whether saying men can get pregnant is ‘politicization’ of science

Republican strategist Scott Jennings got into a verbal brawl with “CNN NewsNight” host Abby Phillip and panelists Thursday after he argued saying men could get pregnant ruined a scientist’s “credibility.”

Several officials with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) resigned after CDC Director Susan Monarez was fired on Thursday. Jennings and Phillip went at it after Jennings said comments made by Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, caused him to not see Daskalakis as “credible.”

“I mean, look, the reason, Scott, I said what I said is because rather than you seriously answering a question about the real concerns that were raised by these officials about the bending of science to the will of that guy, you decided that the most important thing to you was their lack of credibility because they used the word ‘people?’ I mean, I just think — I understand the rhetoric and the political —” Phillip said before Jennings responded, “You realize that you’re accepting some politicization of science, but not others, right?”

WATCH:

“What’s the politicization of science that’s been accepted?” Phillip asked, with Jennings explaining, “Can men get pregnant or not?”

Phillip and Dr. Chris T. Parnell jumped in to defend the phrasing, but Jennings said they were applying a double standard.

“It’s a question of whether your scientists are going to politicize or not. And you accept some and not others,” Jennings said, with Phillip claiming, “That has nothing to do with the conversation that we are having.”

“I disagree. It’s a credibility issue,” Jennings responded.

Parnell then accused Jennings of promoting “misinformation and disinformation” that led to violence, citing a shooting at the CDC’s headquarters.

“There’s attacks on ICE agents every day —” Jennings responded, with Parnell claiming, “A police officer is dead. There are people rejecting the fact that people are being kidnapped on the street.”

“You seem to reject the idea that violence is being incited before. Now, you’re blaming this for violence? You just cherry pick these things like —” Jennings said, with Phillip jumping in, claiming, “Hold on a second. Scott, there is nobody who is justifying attacks against ICE officials. There — and nobody should justify or diminish somebody shooting hundreds of bullets —”

One person fired at ICE agents with a pistol when ICE raided a California marijuana farm in July after obtaining a warrant, with the FBI offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the suspect’s identification, arrest and conviction. In Texas, there were two incidents where shots were fired at ICE or Border Patrol facilities since July 4, with ten people being charged with attempted murder in connection to the former incident.

After further back and forth, S.E. Cupp jumped in.

“No, but why do we have to get derailed by this political BS when you could just say, yeah, that’s garbage and we shouldn’t politicize science and CDC?” Cupp asked.

“Because some scientists are allowed to politicize things and some aren’t,” Jennings responded.

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