(DCNF)—Republican strategist Scott Jennings shut down a CNN anchor’s line of questioning in a discussion over whether the FBI should investigate the six Democratic lawmakers who urged the military to disregard President Donald Trump’s authority.
The Pentagon opened an inquiry into Democratic Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly on Monday after he joined five other lawmakers in a video telling U.S. troops they could refuse “illegal” orders from Trump. During a panel discussion on “The Arena,” Jennings said the real issue isn’t the inquiry — it’s that sitting members of Congress pushed a narrative suggesting the commander-in-chief was prepared to issue illegal orders.
“Democrats who are in power and there are Republicans who are making political videos, right? Are they going to use the FBI to investigate them too, right?” host Kasie Hunt asked Jennings.
“Plenty of Republicans are outraged about this. This video was clearly designed to try to create a narrative among the American people that the president had been or was about to give illegal orders. And it appears to me that it all has to do with what he’s doing with Venezuela,” Jennings said. “That seems to be what they’re mad about, although they did ask Elissa Slotkin on TV, and she cited a Hollywood movie to rationalize or justify what she had done. I don’t know what the truth is about these interviews, and I don’t know if they’ll ever be compelled to do it or not.”
Jennings said Republicans are furious that Democrats produced a video suggesting the commander-in-chief was prepared to issue illegal military orders.
“I do know whether Republicans are circumspect about the law enforcement angle here. Most Republicans I know are pretty darn angry that Democrats made an irresponsible public statement trying to tell the American people that the commander-in-chief had been or was giving, about to give, an illegal order,” Jennings said.
Jennings cut through the debate by saying that some Republicans remain cautious about the law-enforcement angle.
“Some Republicans have been circumspect about that. Others that I’ve heard say if there’s something here, it ought to be looked into. I’m going to give you the political analysis, which is most Republicans that I’ve heard from on this and hear about on it are very, very angry that these Democrats did something this irresponsible,” Jennings said.
Democratic Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, who helped release the video, said Sunday that she could not cite a single illegal order from the Trump administration to justify urging disobedience. War Secretary Pete Hegseth labeled the Democrats in the video the “seditious six” in a Monday post on X and said Kelly, as a retired Navy commander, is still subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
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