CNN Senior Political Commentator and MRC Bulldog Award Winner Scott Jennings continues to confound the left and trigger them into taking the most absurd positions. The most recent example of this came in the middle of a panel discussion on CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip regarding the firings and mass resignations at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
Watch the end of the segment, after Jennings throws the panel into a frenzy over the term “pregnant people” as politicization of science (click “expand” to view transcript):
LOL, Scott Jennings really got Abby Phillip et al to argue that "pregnant people" has nothing to do with the politicization of science. pic.twitter.com/8wn2wCJIv6
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) August 29, 2025
ABBY PHILLIP: I mean, look. The reason, Scott, I said what I said, is because rather than you seriously answering a question about the real concerns that were raised by these officials about the bending of science to the will of that guy, you decided that the most important thing to you was their lack of credibility because they used the word “people”? I mean, I just think -- I understand the rhetoric and the political points. But I'm --
(CROSSTALK)
SCOTT JENNINGS: You realize that you're accepting some politicization of science but not others, right?
(CROSSTALK)
CHRIS PERNELL: What's the politicization of science that's been accepted?
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: What is the -- what is the politicization of science?
JENNINGS: Can men get pregnant or not?
PHILLIP: Scott --
PERNELL: Scott, we're talking about -- we're talking about --
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: If you're in the CDC and you believe that, I'm saying --
(CROSSTALK)
PERNELL: -- we're talking about --
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: -- you're not a very credible person.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: Listen --
(CROSSTALK)
PERNELL: The CDC --
(CROSSTALK)
PERNELL: -- that is responsible for --
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: Scott, Scott --
(CROSSTALK)
PERNELL: -- the health and well-being of the nation.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: That has absolutely nothing to do with the conversation we are having.
(CROSSTALK)
PERNELL: Nothing --
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: It does because --
(CROSSTALK)
PERNELL: It does not.
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: -- it's questionable whether your scientists --
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: That has absolutely nothing to do with the conversation that we are having.
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: -- are going to politicize or not and you accept some and not others.
(CROSSTALK)
PERNELL: That's just a study.
JENNINGS: I disagree.
PERNELL: It's hard on this segment --
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: It's a credibility issue.
(CROSSTALK)
PERNELL: Why do we do that when people have died and are dying? Why would we do that when people's children are being dehumanized --
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: Yeah, I mean, look. It's so -- it's hard to have a conversation in this country about real things when everything just becomes about buzzwords --
(CROSSTALK)
PERNELL: Or political --
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: And I just have to say, like --
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: I don't understand why you're rejecting this criticism of someone's credibility.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: I, yeah, because I think that what matters to people in their homes --
(CROSSTALK)
PERNELL: Yes.
PHILLIP: -- is whether or not they know what immunizations their child should have, which by the way, immunizations have saved so many lives.
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: I'm not disagreeing with you about that. I agree with you.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: What matters to them around the world is not what words are being used by people --
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: Oh, I think it does matter because it tells me what kind of person he is.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: -- but it is whether or not they can trust that the guy who's making decisions about their health actually knows what a mitochondria is.
PERNELL: Yes. And when we focus on, you know, imbecilic things such as that, that's why people are then subject to misinformation and disinformation, and they resort to violence, Scott. There was just a --
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: Violence?
PERNELL: It's not -- violence. This is not a laughing matter.
PHILLIP: There was a shooting at the CDC.
(CROSSTALK)
PERNELL: There was a shooting at the CDC. A police officer is dead. There are people rejecting the fact that people are being kidnapped on the street.
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: There's attacks on ICE agents every day. Who's responsible for that? You seem to reject the idea that violence is being incited before. Now, you're blaming this for violence? You just cherry pick these things like --
(CROSSTALK)
UNKNOWN: You're the biggest cherry picker on television. (CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: Scott --
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: Hold on a second.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: Hold on a second. Scott, there is nobody who is justifying attacks against ICE officials. There -- and nobody should justify or diminish somebody shooting hundreds of bullets --
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: I'm not. It's terrible.
PHILLIP: -- into a workplace where people are doing --
(CROSSTALK)
PERNELL: Where people are trying to save lives. Where people are practicing public health.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: I don't understand why that would even be a comparison that you would make honestly.
S.E. CUPP: It's a great way to not answer the question.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: You guys --
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: What questions?
(CROSSTALK)
CUPP: Hundreds of thousands of doctors --
JENNINGS: What questions?
CUPP: Hundreds of thousands of doctors who probably don't use words that you don't like who agree on the science. The science is settled when it comes to autism and vaccines. They have nothing to do with each other.
PERNELL: Definitely.
CUPP: Less than one percent of scientists suggest that there might be a link.
JENININGS: You seem to be very angry with me. I fundamentally agree with you.
CUPP: No.
PHILLIP: All right.
CUPP: No, but why do we have to get derailed by this political BS when you could just say, yeah, that's garbage and we shouldn't politicize science and CDC.
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: Because some scientists are allowed to politicize things and some aren't.
PERNELL: No. No. That's not true.
JENNINGS: And it depends on your politics and that's how -- (CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: That is very much not true.
PERNELL: That's not true. Thank you for saying that.
PHILLIP: Here we are. I appreciate the discussion here and Dr. Chris Pernell, I appreciate you being here.
The segment went sideways when Jennings pointed out that one of the resigning CDC officials, former National Monkeypox Deputy Response Coordinator Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, used the term “pregnant people” in his resignation letter. Anyone with half a brain can understand how this is actually anti-science because only women can get pregnant. The science is quite settled on that fact. And “pregnant people” presumes otherwise. This is clearly an example of politicized science.
It also bears noting that monkeypox was sold to the American people as a highly transmissible disease, when in fact it was a sexually transmitted disease- transmitted in a very specific manner. The disease would subsequently be renamed "mpox" so as to avoid stigmatizing gay men. Reasonable people might say that THIS also was politicized science and just one of the many such excesses of the Biden Era.
By throwing "pregnant people" into the discussion Jennings thus undid, or rather blew up, a carefully constructed narrative framework about the dangers of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. But the American people voted for a Make America Healthy Again agenda. And the people are entitled to the appointment of functionaries that will implement the agenda they voted for.
As for Abby Phillip, she once again interrupted and hectored and misrepresented Jennings’ arguments by suggesting that his objection was to the word “people.” It was not. Jennings once again argued the panel liberals (Phillip included) into a 5% position against 95% of America.
Exit question: How much of Kara Swisher’s tequila did Abby Phillip knock back after that segment?
Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned segment as aired on CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip on Thursday, August 28th, 2025:
ABBY PHILLIP: CDC staff gathered today to honor top officials who resigned from their positions after the abrupt ouster of the agency's director, Dr. Susan Monarez. Attorneys for the now former director say that she refused to rubber stamp vaccine recommendations that flew in the face of science and listened to RFK Jr.'s hand-picked panel of advisors. But if it wasn't immediately apparent why she was fired, well, Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary, made that abundantly clear.
KAROLINE LEAVITT: Look, what I will say about this individual is that her lawyer's statement made it abundantly clear themselves that she was not aligned with the President's mission to make America healthy again. And the Secretary asked her to resign. She said she would, and then she said she wouldn't. So, the President fired her, which he has every right to do.
PHILLIP: Kennedy Deputy Jim O'Neill is expected to step in as acting director of the CDC. Joining us now at the table in our fifth seat is Dr. Chris Pernell. She is a public health and preventative medicine physician and director of the NAACP Center for Health Equity. Dr. Pernell, we were talking earlier this- in the show about, you know, there were a lot of alarms about what would happen if, you know, Trump did this, what would happen if Trump did that. One of the big things was this appointment of RFK Jr. How do you feel today? I mean, is this your worst case scenario?
CHRIS PERNELL: Exactly. We, in the NAACP and personally myself as a public health and preventive medicine physician, I fought tooth and nail for Secretary Kennedy to not be named Secretary. We knew the potential abuses of having someone who was a two decades-long vaccine skeptic, someone who was reckless about the use of science in charge of one of the largest government agencies with oversight over the CDC. And everything that we feared, unfortunately, has been enacted. Look, there's a bloodbath at the CDC. We in public health feel like we are undermined consistently, and now, we don't even have a credible agency or reputable infrastructure by which to safeguard Americans, to protect the most vulnerable and the most marginalized. And data itself is not Republican or Democrat. Science is politicized, and we are living in a time where the political determinants of health are proving that when the wrong people are in-charge, it’sdeadly.
PHILLIP: As I was saying, I mean, you were saying something in the last segment about this very thing. I mean, when everything in the government is infected by politics, where can people turn for, to feel like, you know what, no matter who's in office, I can trust this. No matter who's in office, this is reliable. I mean, are we moving away from that as a country?
S.E. CUPP: Yeah. And that's why I said this is the quickest way to ruin an advanced civilization- by politicizing and corrupting expertise. You know, I have a personal invested stake in what happens at HHS. I'm the mother of an autistic son. And the way RFK Jr. has talked about autism is ruining --
UNKNOWN: Exactly.
CUPP: -- ruining people's lives.
UNKNOWN: Exactly.
CUPP: It is endangering people because of the way he talks about autism, the way he's promising a cure that doesn't exist, the way he's blaming vaccines is going to get people killed. And it's also really gross and dirty and quackery. But I'm just mad that those health officials resigned. I get why they did.
UNKNOWN: Oh, yes.
CUPP: But all those vacancies are going to be filled by more quacks and TV doctors who want to perform for Trump.
PHILLIP: It's an important point because, you know, the decision that they -- they talked about the decision to do it and it's always a challenge when people decide to do that because, yeah, you leave a vacancy that someone else is going to fill. I want to play for you what one of those officials said tonight speaking to Kaitlan Collins in the last hour about what he saw was happening at the agency that he just left, the CDC.
DEMETRE DASKALAKIS: The people that had been installed by Secretary Kennedy are full of ideology and bias that will actually contaminate the science. So, I think that we have evidence that this is coming. And I think that the other part that we're seeing is that decisions are being made and data is being retrofitted to be able to address the decision. I think that that is really a clear sign that the direction that the country's public health is going is not one that is evidence-based or science-based, which is why our resignations are really, together, are trying to raise a red flag for everyone.
PHILLIP: RFK Jr. came in knowing what he wanted the science to say.
UNKNOWN: Exactly.
PHILLIP: And it sounds like from that official, what is happening is that he is making pronouncements and then finding things to back it up. I mean, this is stuff that affects real people's lives. Vaccines, you know --
(CROSSTALK)
PERNELL: We're in national immunization this month --
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: Yeah, immunizations.
(CROSSTALK)
SCOTT JENNINGS: The criticisms from this person, I just -- I just have to say he did use the term “pregnant people” in his resignation letter.
PERNELL: Oh, come on, come on. That's a ruse.
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: I'm sorry, if that is like the way you're -- if that is like the way you're presenting information --
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: Hold on.
(CROSSTALK)
PERNELL: That's a ruse.
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: I have questions about your credibility.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: Is that -- Scott -- it's like, it's so amazing --
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: It's not a ruse. He really wrote it down.
(CROSSTALK)
PERNELL: It's a ruse because people have --
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: We are talking -- we are talking about --
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: This guy's not credible to me. That's all I'm telling you.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: Scott, are you serious?
PERNELL: Come on.
JENNINGS: That he is not credible --
PHILLIP: No, no. Are you serious that this is --
JENNINGS: Yes. He did write it.
PHILLIP: …that of all the things that we're talking about here -- immunizations, vaccines, autism --
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: -- research about -- on communicable diseases, on cancer, and you are the most concerned about someone's use of the word “people”.
JENNINGS: Yeah, because --
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: That's the most important thing to you?
JENNINGS: -- because you were just complaining about the politicization of science --
(CROSSTALK)
PERNELL: That's not politicization. That's not --
(CROSSTALK) JENNINGS: -- and I can't think of -- I can't think of politicization of science more than that.
(CROSSTALK)
PERNELL: That's not politicization. Come on, Scott.
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: Or what some of these people said to the American people during COVID.
(CROSSTALK)
PERNELL: Come on.
JENNINGS: The credibility of some of these folks who are complaining -- look.
PHILLIP: Okay so --
(CROSSTALK)
PERNELL: Well, well, I'm complaining and I'm public health and preventive medicine physician. We, in the NAACP are complaining, right? And we are an iconic civil rights and human rights organization. There is reason to complain, Scott. You have a person who during his confirmation hearings said that black people had a different immune system, that we should follow a different immunization schedule. You have a person who has spent his life undermining science -- credible science. The people who walked out of the CDC, the people who resigned, these are not flippant folks. These are not people who did this on the slight of a turn. These are people who dedicated their livelihoods, who dedicated their hearts and their expertise to safeguarding the health of all Americans. And now, we are compromised, not just from a health and well-being standpoint, but from a national security standpoint. What's going to happen with the next outbreak, a pandemic --
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: So, let me -- let, just real quick play this because Scott seems to think that RFK Jr., who says things like this, is more credible than people --
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: I didn't say that.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: -- who have degrees --
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: I literally didn't say that.
PHILLIP: -- in the subject. But watch --
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: I didn't say that. Why did you say things I didn't say? Why are you saying I said that?
PHILLIP: -- but watch this clip.
JENNINGS: I didn't say that.
ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR: When I was a kid and I know what a healthy child is supposed to look like. I'm looking at kids as I walk through the airports today, as I walk down the street, and I see these kids that are just overburdened with mitochondrial challenges, with inflammation. You can tell from their faces, from their body movements, and from their lack of social connection. And I know that that's not how our children are supposed to look.
PERNELL: Science. Hashtag science.
PHILLIP: This is why Ajit Shah said that “this is wacky flat earth voodoo stuff. Peter Hotez -- please send a few introductory biology textbooks --
PERNELL: Thank you.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: -- to the Department of HHS”. I mean, look. The reason, Scott, I said what I said, is because rather than you seriously answering a question about the real concerns that were raised by these officials about the bending of science to the will of that guy, you decided that the most important thing to you was their lack of credibility because they used the word “people”? I mean, I just think -- I understand the rhetoric and the political points. But I'm --
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: You realize that you're accepting some politicization of science but not others, right?
(CROSSTALK)
PERNELL: What's the politicization of science that's been accepted?
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: What is the -- what is the politicization of science?
JENNINGS: Can men get pregnant or not?
PHILLIP: Scott --
PERNELL: Scott, we're talking about -- we're talking about --
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: If you're in the CDC and you believe that, I'm saying --
(CROSSTALK)
PERNELL: -- we're talking about --
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: -- you're not a very credible person.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: Listen --
(CROSSTALK)
PERNELL: The CDC --
(CROSSTALK)
PERNELL: -- that is responsible for --
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: Scott, Scott --
(CROSSTALK)
PERNELL: -- the health and well-being of the nation.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: That has absolutely nothing to do with the conversation we are having.
(CROSSTALK)
PERNELL: Nothing --
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: It does because --
(CROSSTALK)
PERNELL: It does not.
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: -- it's questionable whether your scientists --
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: That has absolutely nothing to do with the conversation that we are having.
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: -- are going to politicize or not and you accept some and not others.
(CROSSTALK)
PERNELL: That's just a study.
JENNINGS: I disagree.
PERNELL: It's hard on this segment --
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: It's a credibility issue.
(CROSSTALK)
PERNELL: Why do we do that when people have died and are dying? Why would we do that when people's children are being dehumanized --
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: Yeah, I mean, look. It's so -- it's hard to have a conversation in this country about real things when everything just becomes about buzzwords --
(CROSSTALK)
PERNELL: Or political --
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: And I just have to say, like --
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: I don't understand why you're rejecting this criticism of someone's credibility.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: I, yeah, because I think that what matters to people in their homes --
(CROSSTALK)
PERNELL: Yes.
PHILLIP: -- is whether or not they know what immunizations their child should have, which by the way, immunizations have saved so many lives.
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: I'm not disagreeing with you about that. I agree with you.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: What matters to them around the world is not what words are being used by people --
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: Oh, I think it does matter because it tells me what kind of person he is.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: -- but it is whether or not they can trust that the guy who's making decisions about their health actually knows what a mitochondria is.
PERNELL: Yes. And when we focus on, you know, imbecilic things such as that, that's why people are then subject to misinformation and disinformation, and they resort to violence, Scott. There was just a --
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: Violence?
PERNELL: It's not -- violence. This is not a laughing matter.
PHILLIP: There was a shooting at the CDC.
(CROSSTALK)
PERNELL: There was a shooting at the CDC. A police officer is dead. There are people rejecting the fact that people are being kidnapped on the street.
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: There's attacks on ICE agents every day. Who's responsible for that? You seem to reject the idea that violence is being incited before. Now, you're blaming this for violence? You just cherry pick these things like --
(CROSSTALK)
UNKNOWN: You're the biggest cherry picker on television. (CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: Scott --
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: Hold on a second.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: Hold on a second. Scott, there is nobody who is justifying attacks against ICE officials. There -- and nobody should justify or diminish somebody shooting hundreds of bullets --
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: I'm not. It's terrible.
PHILLIP: -- into a workplace where people are doing --
(CROSSTALK)
PERNELL: Where people are trying to save lives. Where people are practicing public health.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: I don't understand why that would even be a comparison that you would make honestly.
CUPP: It's a great way to not answer the question.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: You guys --
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: What questions?
(CROSSTALK)
CUPP: Hundreds of thousands of doctors --
JENNINGS: What questions?
CUPP: Hundreds of thousands of doctors who probably don't use words that you don't like who agree on the science. The science is settled when it comes to autism and vaccines. They have nothing to do with each other.
PERNELL: Definitely.
CUPP: Less than one percent of scientists suggest that there might be a link.
JENININGS: You seem to be very angry with me. I fundamentally agree with you.
CUPP: No.
PHILLIP: All right.
CUPP: No, but why do we have to get derailed by this political BS when you could just say, yeah, that's garbage and we shouldn't politicize science and CDC.
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: Because some scientists are allowed to politicize things and some aren't.
PERNELL: No. No. That's not true.
JENNINGS: And it depends on your politics and that's how -- (CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: That is very much not true.
PERNELL: That's not true. Thank you for saying that.
PHILLIP: Here we are. I appreciate the discussion here and Dr. Chris Pernell, I appreciate you being here.