CNN’s Jim Sciutto Condemns Colleague Scott Jennings Over ‘Offensively Absurd’ Comparison of Hitler and College Protestors

CNN

CNN’s Jim Sciutto hit his network colleague Scott Jennings on social media Wednesday over what he called an “offensively absurd” comparison between the latter made a day before about Adolf Hitler and pro-Palestinian college demonstrators.

Jennings appeared on the network in the 10 p.m. ET hour to react to a claim by retired Gen. John Kelly that his former boss, Donald Trump, had previously expressed to him he felt Hitler had done some “good things” as Germany’s dictator.

The GOP strategist essentially wrote off the controversy, telling his network colleagues Kelly was entitled to a “political” opinion. Jennings then said if Kelly was concerned about mainstreaming anti-Semitism, he should look at college students protesting Israel’s war on Gaza:

I would humbly submit to Mr. Kelly that if he’s worried about Hitler and he’s worried about fascism, he ought to pick up the newspaper. There’s thousands of Hitlers running around this country right now, running around college campuses, running around New York City chasing Jewish people around, blocking their access on college campuses. If you’re worried about Hitler and you’re talking about Donald Trump, maybe open your eyes and take in what’s happening on the American left in this country. Those are the Hitlers I’m worried about.

Mediaite shared a clip of Jennings’ comments on X, formerly Twitter, and covered the story Tuesday night.

Wednesday afternoon, Sciutto shared the tweet and posted a message directed at Jennings.

“We’ve seen false equivalencies offered before to defend Trump but this one is so patently and offensively absurd given Hitler started the deadliest war in human history and carried out the Holocaust,” the CNN anchor wrote.

Kelly charged Tuesday that while he was serving as Trump’s chief of staff in the White House, the then-president said Hitler had done “good things.” Kelly told The New York Times:

He commented more than once that, “You know, Hitler did some good things, too. First of all, you should never say that. But if you knew what Hitler was all about from the beginning to the end, everything he did was in support his racist, fascist life, you know, philosophy, so that nothing he did, you could argue, was good. It was certainly not done for the right reason.