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Scott Jennings Issues Key Reminders for Liberals on Illegal Immigration, Tim Walz

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  May 01, 2025 4:45 PM

CNN's Scott Jennings had a particularly noteworthy Wednesday, as he made clear he he wasn't taking any nonsense. He mocked those who were present and not present alike during panel discussions, from "tattoo truthers" to Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), with Jennings offering a particular message on illegal immigration.

After Ana Navarro and other co-panelists went off on immigration, and host Abby Phillip tried to paint a concerning picture for President Donald Trump on immigration, his best issue, Jennings offered some telling reminders. Democrats and the mainstream media have lamented how the Trump administration supposedly deported young children. As Secretary of State Marco Rubio made clear, however, their parents, illegal immigrants who were being deported, chose to take their children with them.

Jennings offered the same reminder. "The children that you mentioned were not deported. They went with their mothers. Their mothers requested that the children come with them. So, their mothers were deported because they were illegal aliens," he reminded. As he added, it's U.S, policy to let the mothers decide. Democrats have not merely been going on about children being deported, but about "Maryland man" Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who, as Jennings reminded, is not only an illegal immigrant but is also a suspected MS-13 gang member. The ask here is for Trump "to re-import a dangerous member of a transnational terrorist organization who has clear affiliations with a gang that commits heinous atrocities," which "is not what he was elected to do."

Even House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) wants his members to stop going to El Salvador. "The politics of this could not be worse for the left and worse for Democrats because the president knows he was elected to protect us from MS-13, and that is what they are doing," Jennings passionately added.

Navarro still needed to get a word in edgewise, though, to make claims that Trump told "an absolute lie" about Abrego Garcia's tattoos. The two got into whether or not Jennings was "a photoshop denier" and Navarro was "a tattoo truther," as immigration attorney Raul Reyes and Phillip claimed they were "getting away from the issue," though Phillip only went after Jennings here. 

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As Phillip ultimately moved on, Jennings made sure to remind her and Navarro that it is "not disputed" that he is a member of MS-13, as well as to explain that the tattoos on his knuckles represent the gang. 

So bold and spicy was Jennings feeling, that he not only posted the clip of such a segment to his X account, but also a GIF from "Beauty on the Beast," calling on Democrats and their allies in the mainstream media to "be our guest" when it comes to acting as "tattoo truthers."

Later, the conversation returned to illegal immigration, with Jennings also further calling out the Biden-Harris administration for the failures of an open border.

Navarro also went after another conservative guest, Shermichael Singeton, thinking she was fit to lecture him about the history of "his people," with Singleton reminding Navarro that "last time I checked, I'm black. You're not."

Moments before, when speaking about "the political analysis" of illegal immigration, which Jennings pointed out is how "a lot of average people are looking at it," he asked a key question. "Why is it that we can let 20 million people into the country, just walk across, whatever, and there's no real process for them to do that?"

It bears comparing to what's expected of this administration. "But then we have to individually pick out every single person and go through years, upon years, upon years of paperwork and this and that and the other, and all we're trying to do is send them back to where they came from because they came here illegally in the first place," he added. "Twenty million in with no process, how do you get 20 million out with years and years of people fighting every single case? You could cherry pick any case you want, but the reality is the crisis that put Donald Trump in the White House was caused over years and years and years of neglect and letting people walk into here without any process at all."

In the polls leading up to the 2024 election, whether he was running against then President Joe Biden or then Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump led handily on the immigration issue, which was a top issue for voters, if not the top issue.

After appearing as if she was listening thoughtfully, Navarro insisted on jumping in to claim what Jennings was saying is "not true," as she and Reyes tried to lecture him, with the latter once more bringing up polling. Jennings countered by bringing up polling going into the November election, which Trump won. 

Preceding his moment with Navarro, Singleton aptly also reminded that "we are a sovereign nation and you cannot just come into our country illegally, whenever the heck you want," reminding that "we can't do it to any other country on the face of this earth," as other panelists tried to make it about how "asylum is a legal right."

Singleton still had more to remind during the crosstalk, though, which is that, "if you come in illegally, you have to leave. Americans are tired of that. We do not have unlimited resources. We have to care for our own people first." Navarro jumped in to try to make it about Rubio's grandmother, which Singleton aptly argued "not relevant to this conversation at all." Even Phillip tried to move on, and Singleton tried to emphasize his point of how, "if you come to this country illegally, you are going home, simple as that."

Navarro didn't want to make it "simple," though, as she brought up "the black people who were brought here as slaves who came to this country illegally," eventually leading to the moment finally necessitated a break. 

At the end of the program, the panel also discussed Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), Harris' particularly failed and poorly vetted running mate. As Madeline covered, Walz claimed Harris picked him so as to "code talk to white guys." As the show played a clip of Walz's reason, even Phillip had to offer that "if that was true, it was an epic miscalculation on the party," which Singletone concurred with, noting how white guys saw "no outreach whatsoever" and even "looked at him and thought he was a doofus."

Not only was Walz unable to "code talk to white guys," there was another memorable part of his role with the campaign Jennings brought up. 

"I think when your signature move is jazz hands, you're not as up on the white guy code, maybe, as you think you are," he offered, to laughter from co-panelists. "I mean, every--everything about this guy from the choice, which was made, I think Shermichael's correct, which was made out of weakness, all through his campaign appearances," he added on a more serious note. While it seemed all but certain at one point that Harris would pick Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA), there was backlash over such a move, with Shapiro being Jewish an issue for the antisemites in the Democratic Party. She ultimately went with Walz, who was a name that progressives opposed to Shapiro had even suggested. "And now in the aftermath, I just don't think there's ever been anybody in recent political history in over their head more than Tim Walz," Jennings added.

"It is amazing to me that Democrats elevated this guy and that he continues to believe that he is going to be a leader of this party in 2028. The problems that the Democrats have with Middle America, white men, working class men have, if this is--if this is the road we're going down, 'the code talker' Tim Walz are only going to get worse for Democrats," Jennings continued. 

As the program came to a close, Jennings got the final word in before Phillip, to do with leaders in the Democratic Party, and how Rep. Jasmine Crockett is "definitely the chairman."