By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-11-14 17:07:22 | Updated at 2024-11-27 13:51:22
1 week ago
Republican CNN panelist Scott Jennings poked fun at his colleagues on Thursday, mocking them for describing President-elect Donald Trump as 'Hitler' and a 'fascist' during the presidential campaign.
After playing clips of Trump and Biden criticizing each other on the campaign trail, the CNN panel discussed the successful meeting between Biden and Trump at the White House on Wednesday.
Meghan Hays, a former Biden White advisor, said that Biden did not traditionally hold grudges, and was ultimately a dignified statesman in the end.
'I'm shocked,' Jennings said, holding up a copy of the Wall Street Journal featuring a picture of the two men together. 'I mean, did you ever think you'd see literal Hitler in the Oval Office–– with the president United States?'
'C'mon Scott,' Hays protested.
'It was the underpinning of the Democratic campaign– that Donald Trump is a fascist,' Jennings continued. 'And what I see in this is I'm glad it's happening ... but what it tells me and what it ought to tell Democrats is they didn't mean any of it. It was all campaign rhetoric.'
Biden warned voters Trump would be a 'dictator on day one' and Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre said in October that Trump fit 'into the general definition of fascist.'
During the presidential campaign, Vice President Kamala Harris described Trump as 'a president who admires dictators and is a fascist.'
US President Joe Biden meets with US President-elect Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, DC,
Jennings said that if Democrats truly believed that Trump was a 'fascist' Biden would not have welcomed him to the White House on Thursday.
Journalists on the panel praised Biden's decision to welcome him back to the White House as a 'good moment in the country,' noting that Trump famously refused to hold a meeting with Biden after he won the 2020 presidential election.
Jennings was not the only one pointing out Biden's sudden turnaround in how he treated Trump.
Radio co-host Charlamagne tha god had a similar reaction on his show The Breakfast Club.
'Well, I just don't understand the White House visit,' he told his audience. 'Now, granted, you know, I'm glad it's a peaceful transition of power; but what happened to the threat of democracy talk? What happened to the fascist talk?'
He noted that Biden's attacks against Trump meant more as the sitting president of the United States.
'I'm just trying to figure out how do you go from, "He's an existential threat to democracy," to, "Welcome back"?' he asked.
