CNN black sheep Scott Jennings stuns panel with brutal Jimmy Carter takedown a day after his death

CNN's resident Republican, Scott Jennings, embarked on a scathing denunciation of Jimmy Carter a day after the former Democratic president's death at age 100.

On a panel moderated by host Abby Phillip, Jennings blasted Carter over what he painted as post-presidency meddling in the Middle East and Asia.

'Let me preface my take by offering condolences to the Carter family on his death,' the senior political commentator began, speaking on CNN News Night.

'He was obviously one of the most unique post-presidents we’ve ever had because he lived so long and he did so much. That having been said, he was a terrible president,' Jennings declared.

'That’s why he lost in a landslide after his one term,' Jennings added, referencing how voters disillusioned by inflation overwhelmingly voted for Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980.

'If it’s possible, I think he was even a worse ex-president.'

The condemnation continued from there, despite many calling Carter's post-presidency work prolific.

Jennings, a political strategist and pundit, framed it as 'meddling', before rattling off reasons for his very public rebuff of the Democrat, who lived to 100.

Carter was a staunch critic of Israel's post-October 7 campaign in Gaza, and has held court with figures like Syria's Bashar al-Assad and members of Hamas in hopes for diplomacy.

'Saddling up to dictators around the world... his vehement views, anti-Israel views, and more than dabbling in anti-Semitism over the years,' he declared.

He also potentially averted a war between the United States and North Korea in 1994 - thanks to a diplomatic visit to then leader Kim Ill Sung after the country announced it was throwing international nuclear inspectors out of it.

The Nobel Prize winner called his talks with the communist leader a 'miracle', after emerging in Seoul two days later to announce the 'crisis [was] over'.

The move, however, angered the Clinton White House, as Carter made the trip as private citizen.

Jennings, 47, honed in on this fact Monday, accusing Carter of 'saddling up to dictators'.

The former George W. Bush and Mitch McConnell adviser went on to note how Carter's notorious stubbornness - and painstaking, distinct approach to politics - 'often vexed Democrats.'

'Obama didn’t even have him speak at his ’08 convention,' he said, before turning to the successful, albeit unilateral diplomacy trip he took to the Hermit Kingdom more than 20 years before Donald Trump set foot on North Korean soil.

'[It] put Bill Clinton in a terrible foreign policy box on a North Korea nuclear issue,' Jennings said.

'I think he was a guy who had a huge ego and believed that he was uniquely positioned to do all these things,' he continued, adding his belief that Carter took such measures after 'the American people had roundly and soundly rejected his leadership.'

'So, I respect people who run for president and get elected president, but in his particular case, I think he, time and again, proved why he was never suited for the office in the first place,' the conservative commentator concluded.

Host Abby Phillip - who publicly conceded during an appearance at the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School of Business this month that Democratic Party's problems are ‘not as simple as wokeness ’ - did not weigh in one way or the other.

Viewers, however, were quick to call out Jennings online for his Carter comments, with many painting them as being in poor taste.

'C'mon, Jennings. This is NOT OK,' one person tweeted shortly after. 'Trump hasn't been meddlesome? Trump hasn't stood with anti-US dictators as Pres. & after? [Get] real!'

Jennings, meanwhile, responded to the rebuffs on his personal X account the following morning, doubling down on his stance. 

'My thoughts on Jimmy Carter’s legacy last night on @cnn : terrible president, soundly rejected by the American people,' he wrote in a post that has quickly amassed more than half-a-million views.

'Even worse ex-president, whose meddling in US foreign policy & virulent anti-Israel/anti-Semitic views must not be forgotten,' he continued. 

'Undermined US interests repeatedly.' 

Carter announced his trip to North Korea with a letter - which was quickly made public - to then-President Bill Clinton, detailing his plans to meet with Sung as a private citizen.

Clinton reluctantly agreed, though some say Carter, a famously headstrong figure, forced his hand with the display.

In 2006, Carter detailed his distaste towards Israel's handling of the Gaza conflict, in the book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.

The book came in the midst of what was perhaps the most impactful post-presidency of any former president, beginning with the founding of the nongovernmental Carter Center in 1983.

The organization still stands today, and for more than 40 years has helped tackle diplomatic and humanitarian issues.

Carter led more than 100 trips to dozens of countries to take part in peace talks between the center’s inception and 2015.

His post presidential career was cut short by a cancer diagnosis in August of that year. He died Sunday at his home in Plains, Georgia.

In a statement, Donald Trump appeared to differ with Jennings, saying the former president 'did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans'.

'For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude,' he said.