CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings accused Democrats on Friday of trying to control the narrative surrounding the late child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein, arguing the effort “blew up in their face.”
Jennings made the comments during an appearance on the PBD Podcast with Patrick Bet-David, where he criticized Rep. Jasmine Crockett and other Democrats for their handling of the Epstein issue, Mediaite
Jennings pointed to Crockett’s recent remarks on the House floor in which she claimed “a Jeffrey Epstein” had donated to Republicans like Lee Zeldin, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator.Crockett quickly learned the donor she referenced was not the late billionaire, who died in 2019 while facing sex trafficking charges.
“She’s the smartest person they could find so they sent her to do this,” Jennings said.
“And the reason is this: because they are desperate to make this a story about President [Donald] Trump and Epstein. And the only thing we found out in the last week is that it’s a story about Democrats and Epstein,” he added. “You got Larry Summers asking for dating advice from Epstein.”
Summers, a former Treasury Secretary under President Bill Clinton, stepped down from a Harvard role after newly released emails showed him seeking dating advice from Epstein from November 2018 to July 2019.
The emails were sent years after Epstein had already registered as a sex offender following his conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution.
Jennings also called out Del. Stacey Plaskett of the Virgin Islands over her correspondences with Epstein during a 2019 congressional hearing, claiming the billionaire appeared to influence her questioning.
Plaskett, who narrowly avoided House censure, has said she relied on Epstein only for “information.”
“You got Plaskett being programmed by Epstein,” Jennings said.
“They lost the narrative, so they sent out their smartest person, Jasmine Crockett, to try to reset the narrative, and it blew up in their face.”
“They may regret going down this road.”
Crockett’s comments about a donor named Epstein came during the attempt to censure Plaskett.
She defended naming the wrong Epstein by saying her staff did not have time to properly vet the information.
She also argued she never specifically claimed it was the Jeffrey Epstein at the center of the censure effort.
“Listen, I never said that it was that Jeffrey Epstein,” she told CNN. “Just so that people understand, when you make a donation, your picture is not there.”
“And because they decided to spring this on us in real time, I wanted the Republicans to think about what could potentially happen because I knew that they didn’t even try to go through the FEC. So my team, what they did is they Googled. And that is specifically why I said, a, Jeffrey Epstein.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi said Wednesday that the Justice Department will release all unclassified records connected to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein within 30 days of President Donald Trump signing new disclosure legislation.
Earlier in the day, the Senate formally transmitted the bill to Trump after voting Tuesday night to automatically approve it upon arrival from the House. The House passed the measure Tuesday in a 427–1 vote.
Under the Epstein Files Transparency Act — which Trump has signaled he will sign — Bondi must disclose all documents, including internal communications and investigative materials, related to Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell within 30 days of the law taking effect.
In 2019, Epstein reportedly committed suicide while in federal custody, as he awaited trial for charges connected to the sex trafficking of minors. Maxwell, having been found guilty of sex trafficking and related offenses, is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence.
“We will follow the law,” Bondi told reporters at a news conference on Wednesday.
“The law passed both chambers last evening. It has not yet been signed, but we will continue to follow the law again while protecting victims but also providing maximum transparency.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson revealed on Tuesday that Democrats are demanding billions in wasteful and ideological spending, including $3.9 million for LGBTQI+ democracy grants in the Western Balkans, as part of their conditions to reopen the government.
Speaking on the 14th day of what he called the Democrat government shutdown, Johnson said the American people are suffering because Democrats have chosen politics over responsibility.
“Welcome to day 14 of the Democrat government shutdown,” Johnson said during his press briefing. “It’s two weeks of Democrats in Congress inflicting untold pain on the American people for nothing other than pure politics.”
Johnson explained that House Republicans had already offered a clean continuing resolution to keep the government funded, but Democrats repeatedly rejected it.
Instead, he said, Democrats are tying unrelated left-wing priorities to essential government operations in an attempt to strong-arm Republicans into approving radical spending measures.
He accused Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of catering to what he described as the party’s “Marxist base.”
The Speaker laid out details from the Democrats’ counterproposal, calling it a $1.5 trillion wish list of reckless spending that would send taxpayer money to liberal causes and foreign projects that have nothing to do with running the U.S. government.
Among the examples he cited were $24.6 million for climate resilience programs in Honduras.
Another $13.4 million would go to civic engagement programs in Zimbabwe.
An additional $2.9 million is earmarked for desert locust risk reduction in the Horn of Africa.
The Democrats’ plan also calls for $2 million to fund “organizing for feminist democratic principles” in Africa, according to Johnson.
Johnson highlighted the $3.9 million in LGBTQI+ democracy grants for the Western Balkans as an example of Democrats’ misplaced priorities.
“They want to spend 3.9 million of your hard-earned dollars for LGBTQI+ democracy grants in the Western Balkans,” Johnson said. “We are not doing that.”
He argued that Democrats are also trying to undo common-sense reforms enacted by Republicans that prevent illegal immigrants from accessing taxpayer-funded healthcare.
“This is a fact,” he said. “They would add illegal aliens and non-citizens back to taxpayer-funded benefits. It would cost taxpayers nearly $200 billion.”
Johnson further warned that Democrats want to roll back modest work requirements placed on able-bodied young men without dependents.
At the same time, Democrats are pushing to make COVID-era Obamacare subsidies permanent, with no income limits or meaningful reforms.
Johnson said this approach would not only punish working Americans but also reward dependency and mismanagement.
The Speaker accused Democrats of prioritizing ideological projects over the immediate needs of the American people.
He said their proposal exposes how out of touch the party has become, highlighting spending for causes abroad while Americans face uncertainty at home.
“This is not about keeping the lights on,” Johnson said. “This is about Democrats trying to use the shutdown as leverage to fund their far-left agenda.”
Johnson reminded reporters that Republicans have already passed legislation to reopen the government responsibly, without any of the unrelated political riders Democrats insist on including.
The Republican plan, he said, would maintain government operations, protect taxpayers, and prevent wasteful spending abroad.
Johnson also pointed out that the Democrats’ proposal would restore funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, sending a half-billion dollars to what he described as liberal media outlets that have long benefited from taxpayer subsidies.
He described it as another example of Democrats using government funding to reward their political allies rather than serving the public good.
“These are not the priorities of the American people,” Johnson said firmly. “They are the priorities of a radical political class that has forgotten who they work for.”
The Speaker ended his remarks by calling on Democrats to stop the political games and join Republicans in reopening the government immediately.
“We have a clean bill ready to go,” he said. “It keeps the government open, pays our troops, secures the border, and protects hardworking taxpayers. Democrats need to stop holding America hostage.”
Johnson’s comments reflect growing frustration among House Republicans who say Democrats are using the shutdown to push through spending on social experiments, foreign projects, and activist groups under the guise of government funding.
He warned that such spending will only deepen America’s fiscal crisis and fuel public anger toward Washington’s political class.
“This is a moment for leadership,” Johnson concluded. “It’s time to put the American people first and end this shutdown—not by giving in to woke demands, but by standing firm for fiscal sanity and common sense.”