CNN's Scott Jennings got an earful on Saturday morning as he defended Donald Trump's administration for obliterating funding for medical research and had no answer when confronted about cuts to cancer research.
During the "Table for Five" segment, the conservative praised the cuts included in the "big beautiful" budget bill cobbled together by the House at Trump's direction, which led to a discussion of a Medicaid cuts.
That was when things got sticky.
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"I think this bill is a great bill," he asserted. "It cuts taxes, it invests in border security. It unleashes American energy; these are all very big priorities for the American people."
"And by the way, it's exactly what he ran on and how he won the national popular vote and the electoral college," he maintained. "This is his agenda, this is the bill ---."
"Scott, he didn't run on, he didn't run on cutting cancer research. That's not what people voted for," Joanna Coles of the Daily Beast interrupted.
CNN's Cari Champion jumped in with, "No one voted for that, Scott. No one wants to see that."
"If Trump had run on cutting cancer research, i think this would have, been a very different topic, " host Abby Phillip chimed in as everyone began speaking at once.
'The campaign was about extending the tax cuts and new tax cuts for working-class Americans," Jennings protested. 'The campaign was about immigration. The campaign was about unleashing American energy to lower energy costs, that's what the bill does."
"Does that mean we get rid of cancer research?" Champion challenged him. "If you want the good and the bad, I'm asking."
"The bill has nothing to do with cancer research," the clearly exasperated conservative persisted. "The bill has everything to do about taxes, the border and energy. That's what the bill is about and, you know, on the one hand, I've got people over here arguing that it's increasing the deficit. On the other hand, you're saying we're cutting too much. I don't know what what argument you all are trying to make."
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