Another “NewsNight, another flap between anchor Abby Phillip and the network’s Republican analyst, Scott Jennings.
The two have had a fractious relationship ever since Phillip took over the program a few months ago. On Monday, Phillips scolded Jennings for putting words into her mouth during a discussion of President Trump’s attempted takeover of independent agencies and the emails from Elon Musk that created a furor at some of those agencies.
“I think one other point, and this is the push and pull of when a Republican is the president. There’s an attempt, when a Republican’s in the White House, Donald Trump or any other Republican, to argue that these federal agencies, federal workers, the bureaucracy, sort of, can act independently or autonomously from the political leadership of the country,” Jennings said.
“And that’s what’s happening here. That’s why everyone is melting down. That’s why the lady came on CNN today. They don’t want to answer the email because they don’t want to answer to the president. And the message from Trump and Musk is we have political leaders in this country and you got to answer to them.”
Phillip questioned whether Jennings was suggesting that these agencies only express independence when a Republican is in office, which Jennings confirmed.
“Well, you know that that’s not true,” she shot back.
“No. I know that it is 100 percent true that the bureaucracy is not aligned with — mostly not aligned with Republicans,” Jennings replied.
Phillip pointed out that regardless of which party is in control, certain agencies operate independently from politics.
“You’re saying that the bureaucracy is responsive to Republican or Trump priorities as Democratic?” Jennings asked.
“Is that what I said? No, it’s not!” Phillip responded.
“You’re saying that bias doesn’t exist, and I disagree,” Jennings said.
“OK. Scott, let me just repeat what I said. There are certain agencies, regardless of the president, that are statutorily independent from politics because they deal with things that pertain to the American public and there needs to be continuity, regardless of who the president,” she said.
Another panelist offered the Federal Reserve Bank as an example.
“The Federal Reserve, the Security and Exchange Commission. There are plenty of agencies that are like that. And…” Phillip said.
Jennings said an email — like the one from Musk asking federal workers to justify their jobs — doesn’t jeopardize continuity of government.
“And there are many, many federal employees that are civil servants, meaning that they don’t come in because of partisan politics,” Phillip continued. “That’s there to protect you as a conservative and (panelist) Tara (Setmayer) as a liberal.”
Jennings said it was “incredibly naive” to believe that there are not civil service bureaucrats “who would love nothing more than to thwart this president for four years and wait for a Democrat to take over.”
Panelist Ana Navarro chimed in.
“You know, you think that the people working at the border have a bias, pro-Democrats, you think people working for USDA in Miami have a bias for Democrats?” she said.
Jennings and Phillip are not ones to shy from a good debate. They have recently tussled over the president banning the Associated Press from White House events and Jennings’ claim that “liberal judges” are thwarting the president’s agenda.
