‘Congratulations To The Fascist?!’ CNN Crew Gets Heated As Pro and Anti-Trump Analysts Brawl Over Concession Speech

Pro-Trump and anti-Trump CNN analysts brawled over how Vice President Kamala Harris will concede to President-elect Donald Trump after calling him a “fascist” and a threat to democracy.

Going into Election Day, the expectation was that it would be a close presidential race that could take days or longer to have a decision. But once polls began to close and the results poured in, it was only a matter of hours before outlets called the race for Trump.

A major subplot of the closing days of the campaign was the emergence of former senior Trump aides calling Trump a “fascist” and suggesting he admires Nazis — whom he was frequently accused of echoing during the race. The VP agreed with the “fascist” assessment, which was repeated on the campaign trail.

On Wednesday morning’s post-election special edition of CNN News Central, things got heated as Jennings complained about Vice President Kamala Harris agreeing with the “fascist” assessment, and Finney rebutted him by citing Trump’s rhetoric.

At one point Finney turned to Jennings and rhetorically asked “Scott Jennings, do you believe that I am poisoning white blood?”

Finney and former Biden senior aide Kate Bedingfield argued that Harris could believe Trump is a fascist and still concede graciously, but Jennings called that notion “crazy” — quipping “Congratulations to the fascist?!”:

KAREN FINNEY: But hold on. Okay. Sorry. But to have Bakari was saying this was an election. It’s like. It’s like any sport. He won, you say? We did our best. I thank my team. Now it’s up to him. And I hope. You know, of course you’re going to wish them luck.

SCOTT JENNINGS: Congratulations to the fascist?! I mean, do you understand how crazy that sounds?

KATE BEDINGFIELD: Putting our democracy ahead of partisan politics–

SCOTT JENNINGS: You’re going to congratulate.

KATE BEDINGFIELD: Can I just say quickly, it’s. Yes. Yes. Because campaigns get heated and the loser comes out and concedes to the winner. And it’s– that that is valuing our democracy more than any element of partisan politics. And that is actually what American democracy is based on. So, yes, it goes. That is what happens.

…

SCOTT JENNINGS: May I just humbly recommend to Kamala Harris that when she speaks today, she is honest with the people and her people specifically, that the country’s not going to come to an end. The Constitution is not going to come to an end. We’ll have an election in two years. We’ll have an election in four years.

Oprah warned us the other night that we’ll never have another vote again. All of this was complete baloney. Chalk it up to heated campaign rhetoric.

But it is very important that people understand that what she said and the way she ran her campaign is not the way it is going to be. This is America. We had an election. I totally agree with you. But if you if she needs to do that today, I really hope she does.

Watch above via CNN News Central.