Scott Jennings Reportedly Jockeying to Replace Karoline Leavitt as White House Press Secretary

Conservative commentator Scott Jennings is reportedly angling to become President Trump’s next White House press secretary.

Politico Playbook reported Thursday that Jennings has been making a public and private push for the job as the White House searches for a successor to Karoline Leavitt. Leavitt announced last week she will step down at the end of August, ending her historic run as the youngest White House press secretary.

Jennings’ Bid

According to Politico, Jennings has used the backlash against Sen. Jon Ossoff’s (D-GA) attack on presidential aide Natalie Harp to audition for the job.

At a campaign rally in Atlanta on Sunday Ossoff accused the president of neglecting his responsibilities during the war with Iran before claiming Trump would rather build his ballroom and “travel with Natalie.”

The remark was widely interpreted by Republicans as an insinuation about the president’s relationship with Harp, a 35-year-old cancer survivor and longtime aide who accompanied him aboard a military aircraft during last month’s secret plane switch in Turkey.

Jennings mounted a forceful defense of Harp on X, radio, and television this week. On Tuesday’s edition of The Scott Jennings Show, he called Ossoff a “sucker punching coward” and chastised “Democratic men” for their treatment of “conservative women”:

“What we are learning from Democratic men right now is that if you’re a conservative woman in politics, you are less than human, you are not to be believed, and it is to be assumed that you’re nothing more than a concubine for some male politician. That’s what Democrat men think when they see a pretty girl in a government building, according to Jon Ossoff. The implication is that a professional woman couldn’t possibly have earned her position of trust in the White House without sleeping her way to the top. And when asked to defend it, Ossoff slinked away from it, no apology and no defense, like a sucker punching coward.”

Jennings’ full-court press is believed to have won praise from Trump allies and also attracted attention inside the West Wing. Politico reported Jennings personally sent clips of his commentary to several senior White House officials. He also reportedly requested and secured a private meeting with Chief of Staff Susie Wiles over the weekend.

No offer is said to have been made and no decision reached… yet.

His Chances

It is believed that President Trump likes Jennings and has spent recent days calling prominent allies to ask what they think about putting him behind the podium, according to Politico.

Jennings, for his part, told the outlet somebody needed “to defend [Harp’s] honor” and declined to say whether he wants the job. He also kept his cards close to the vest on CNN last week as his fellow panelists pressed him repeatedly for an answer on whether he would like the job.

“Look, I don’t know, but I’ll tell you this: Karoline Levitt has been maybe the greatest White House press secretary in the last 30 years at least,” Jennings said. “He’s been nothing short of brilliant.”

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