Scott Jennings was confronted about why Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is talking to him rather than a “credible” news outlet.
Media outlets are dying to hear from McConnell, who was recently discharged from a rehabilitation center following a health battle. While the senator has declined to give any interviews thus far, he doesn’t appear to have any issue with talking to Jennings, and this doesn’t sit right with fellow CNN contributor Lulu Garcia-Navarro.
While on Tuesday’s episode of “The Arena,” she asked why McConnell is so stubborn about his privacy.
Watch:
“Scott Jennings spoke to Senator McConnell earlier today. Scott, first of all, we do wish the senator a speedy recovery. How is he doing and what did the senator tell you?” host Kasie Hunt asked.
“Well, he seemed to be doing a lot better. You know, he left the rehab facility several days ago, and he’s been recovering at home. And I can tell you, I talked to him early on and talked to him again today; I could tell being at home was better than being in the hospital, that’s for sure,” Jennings responded. “He told me he was doing this rehab at home, and I think their plan is to hopefully get him back to the Senate. It comes back into session September the 14th, and I know there’s some issues that he cares about a lot. Farm bill, NDAA, and some other issues. So based on what I heard today, it sounded like he was in an improving position. But, you know, we’re still a month away from the Senate coming back into session.”
“And by the way, this is the end of his term,” the contributor pointed out. “He’s not running again. There’s an election in Kentucky in November. He’ll be out of office come January. So this is the last few weeks of the Senate session of his term.”
“Do you just like, call him up directly in his phone, or do you call an aide and the aide hands it to him? How does it work?” Hunt wondered.
“He called me directly from his phone today. Now you have to understand, I’ve known him since I was 16, 17 years old. So we’ve had a relationship for a long time. I worked on a lot of his campaigns over the years, so it’s not unusual for us to chat. But in today’s case, he was really up on the campaigns. He’s a political operative at heart. We talked a lot about the Michigan Senate race. We talked about Maine a little bit, talked about, just the map in general,” Jennings explained.
“Scott, why isn’t he calling in to a credible news organization? I mean, why is he talking to you and not talking to-” Garcia-Navarro broke in.
“You’re saying it’s not credible to call me, Lulu?” Jennings joked.
“I’m saying it’s totally credible, but as you said, you’re his friend. But I think there’s what I’m hearing from Governor [Andy] Beshear, and I’m just wondering how you view that, is, you know, why isn’t he calling in to even one that he would consider friendly, like Fox News? I mean, I guess that’s the prevailing question,” she asked.
“My view of him and, frankly, my belief about males of that generation is that they’re intensely private, to be honest. He’s always been a little private about his own personal health care. You know, he’s a Polio survivor and one of the issues that he’s had over time is weakness in his legs. I think that’s part of what’s going on here and part of the conditioning that he is having to go through right now,” Jennings said.
He was also asked if the senator is aware of all of the “brouhaha” surrounding his medical issues, and the contributor gave some insight into that issue as well.
“He told me today, he said, it was like, ‘I know this is unusual circumstances. I’m sitting here. The doctors tell me I don’t have any life-threatening issues. It must seem rather strange.’ So yeah, I got the feeling he’s somewhat aware of it and, frankly, somewhat frustrated by it.”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Sierra Marlee is a millennial whose hunger for the truth in a world of fake news has led her to write. Marlee also contributes to BizPac Review.
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