that look he's talking to them in the way he thinks he needs to talk to you acknowledge that that is something that because I don't take orders from you number one and number two I gave him the space to negotiate with far-right MAGA commentator Scott Jennings appeared again on Abby Phillips show where he came across as very smug and confrontational using insults and making claims that many viewers see as misinformation. In this video, we are going to look at clips from this heated panel discussion on Abby Phillips show and I also share my own thoughts along the way. Let's dive in and break it all down together.
Tonight, a question about American values after President Trump warned that a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. He has since delayed that threat now for two weeks, but it still sent shock waves all over the world, including the Vatican. Today, as we all know, there was also this threat against all the people of Iran.
This is truly unacceptable. There are certainly issues of international law here, but much more. It's a moral issue for the good of the people entirely.
The Pope has been weighing in on this conflict for a while now, but um you know, I think you described it as a genocidal threat. Um other people have described it that way. I mean, there's this debate always, should you take Trump literally or seriously, but whether you take him literally or seriously, saying that you're going to end a civilization is a serious threat that no American president has ever issued before and you shouldn't and and and honestly those sorts of things when just really are very unhelpful.
Um, but I will also say we're not unaccustomed to him doing this. He did it with respect to North Korea. He said similar things with respect to China.
He's made bluffs with respect to Canada. He's done it over and over again. And every time that he does this, I find that the media is running around chasing its tail with respect to him.
I get he's the president of the United States. He should not be saying any of that sort of thing. And it's wrong.
It it is absolutely wrong. At the same time, how many times are we going to do this with this guy? I mean, why I mean, why why are we engaging?
So, the onus is on us to say, "Oh, well, we'll just ignore him because he's making statements like a mad king. " So we're so we just normalize it as well that's just Trump being Trump and move on. Would you if I mean would you is this someone that you would tell your kids that you should look up to this guy and believe what he says you know with the president of the United States or just well you can go around to say whatever you want and threaten to you know annihilate civilizations and just yeah it's the media chasing his tail every time he says something like that.
In fact I've said exactly the opposite to my kids. I I I have said exactly the opposite which I would I'm glad. So why is the standard different for the president of the United States?
You wouldn't let your kids get away because like that happened over and over and over again. Yes. And and he wasn't.
He is the president of the United States. You have to actually deal with what you have. And what we're dealing right now is with a president that again I I take the view and I know it's a minority view.
What he has done with respect to Iran has been good for society. It's been good for the world. Hamas has been degra degragated.
Hezbollah has been degragated. The Iranian military, the nuclear that it is an evil nation state. I look at the longest we're we're not, you know, like I said, we're doing we're doing the service to mad kings.
Mad kings haven't said things like that since going back to Genghask Khan. This is not even unprecedented in modern times. It was unprecedented even in medieval times to say things like this.
And and what a president says matters. It's not enough to say, well, that's just Trump and and and let's not chase our tails around this. When a we have we have politicians on at this table.
When politicians speak that what they say, the way they say it matters. and ought to matter. If when I was a child and came home and if I used a profanity, my parents didn't say, "That's just Bobby being Bobby and we could we should go on with [laughter] that.
" I I I got my punishment for that. And and the president should not get a free pass. He's an 80-year-old man.
He's a grown adult. He cannot be just simply brushed. This this kind of behavior, this kind of language cannot simply be brushed away.
A civilization for crying out loud. We're not even allowed to say that about a town or or a village. We're not supposed to use language like that.
George Bush went to Iraq and and and he used very different language. The language I covered that war I and and and it was it was not a war I was in support of, but I covered it as a journalist in Baghdad for 5 years. I distinctly remember George Bush saying we come to Iraq with respect for your civilization, with respect for the faiths that were that are practiced here.
There's a difference. Presidential language goes down in history and that's got to count for something. We cannot simply brush this away like this.
Absolutely. I mean, I don't have any respect for the government that for this regime, but I'll tell you, uh, unhinged and unhelpful. That's the only way.
When you read something like that, you say, how does this advance the ball forward? And also, there's only so many times you can cry wolf and say things like that are so extreme and crazy where people just blow you off, including other world leaders, and don't take you seriously. And I think the more this, you know, yes, we're desensitized, you're right, and that's not a good thing.
And by the way, a little language. I'm from Jersey, so a little's okay. [laughter] Before we even get into the maggamntal gymnastics from Scott Jennings, I have to say this straight up.
What a dumb argument coming from Chris Mattel here. Because just think about it for a second. Is there any company in America that would tolerate an employee behaving the way Donald Trump does or saying the kinds of things he says?
The panel brought up the example of a child and it fits perfectly because no parent would allow their kid to act like that and then brush it off by saying that's just how he is and we're not going to discipline him. And if you really apply that same logic to a workplace, it completely falls apart. Because if any employee was posting the kind of stuff Donald Trump puts out on Truth Social or says publicly in press conferences, they would be fired immediately.
and if it was a CEO, they would be gone even faster. So, it makes you wonder why this behavior gets a pass in politics. And the answer is pretty obvious.
Republicans are either afraid of Donald Trump or they're choosing to go along with whatever he does. Because if they had even a basic level of decency, they would have done everything possible to stop him from getting elected back in 2016. And even after he got into office, they had four full years to push back and then another stretch of time watching him continue this same behavior every single day, saying things that would instantly end any other political career.
Because the reality is, you could take just one thing Donald Trump says and it would have destroyed any previous candidate for president or higher office, but he says things like that constantly and somehow faces no consequences. And there is absolutely no excuse for Republicans allowing him to get their nomination again. They should have done everything they could come together and made it clear that they were not going to let someone they know is reckless and unfit take over their party.
But instead they went along with it which makes them complicit in all of this. And the most predictable part is what happens next. Because in a few years when Donald Trump is no longer in power or no longer around politically, many of these same people will suddenly act like they never supported him.
And even someone like Scott Jennings, if he is still appearing on Abby Phillips show or anywhere else, will likely try to rewrite history and pretend he was never on board once the approval ratings drop and the political winds shift. Let me just read this because this is conservative commentator Orin Cass. He's close to Vice President JD Vance.
He says, "Simply put, what is the point of all of this? If the these are empty threats that we all know he will not carry out, then they are ineffective threats, the Iranians are on X2 and merely making the president and our nation look foolish. If they're not empty threats and the president is asserting the American position that such actions are acceptable in this situation and ones that we are willing to take, we are not living in some quantum thought experiment where he is simultaneously is and is not serious.
" I don't agree that he's made empty threats as it relates to Iran. I don't think literally an empty threat. I don't I don't think the people that we decapitated at the top of their regime would call them empty threats either.
I mean, we've clearly demonstrated the interest in using the US military to take action. The shifting deadlines. What do you call the threat this morning to end their civilization only to accept a 10-point plan that was put on the table yesterday as the basis for negotiations?
You haven't seen the 10point plan a we know is that they said they would reopen the straight beyond that. Hold on. Hold on a second.
The president retweeted the Iranian foreign minister's statement which said explicitly that they are using the 10-point plan as a basis of negotiation. I'm not making that up. The president reiterated that on an expost.
Scott is my point is the threats from Trump and some of the stuff that's bomb their bridges to bomb bomb their desalination plants to bomb them out of their civilization off the face of the earth. How are those not empty threats? Well, it looks like it brought them to the table tonight and got them in a place where they would agree to a ceasefire.
I mean, I'll give you a counter argument to all these other positions, which is the president to reality. We have a ceasefire is still under attack. The same table that we have tonight is the table that existed yesterday in large part and and fundamentally the only thing that has been agreed to is that Iran will continue to control the straight of Hormuse and will allow ships to go through on their control.
That is the only thing that has been agreed to. the straight is going to be reopened and we're going to negotiate about the rest. Beyond that, we don't really know much of anything.
But I will tell you, yesterday Iran was saying, "We're cutting off, you know, talks. We're not going to continue the talks. " The president uses some extreme language and all of a sudden, voila, tonight we have a ceasefire for two weeks.
Why can't we just say, you know what, maybe we have achieved military objectives. Maybe we have taken down their military and uh their ability to export terror. Maybe we have decimated their missiles.
Maybe we've buried the nuclear material. And maybe we've got two weeks to make the world a safer place. Why can't we look at this as a glass half full moment as opposed to But then why we have to make it negative for Donald Trump just acknowledge that what Donald Trump said this morning was a warrant and that no president should ever threaten annihilating a civilization.
Why can't you just acknowledge that? Look, he's talking to them in the way he thinks he should talk. Why can't you acknowledge that?
That is something that I don't take orders from you. Number one, and number two, I gave him the space to negotiate with the Iranians the best way he knows that. All right.
Well, let me let me just ask one final let me ask a final question, Scott, for the record. Do you think it's acceptable for the president to threaten to annihilate a civilization? I think it's acceptable for the commander-in-chief to deal with these people in the best way that he can.
Is that a yes or a given result or given the latitude is going to second guess him? I'm not going to second guess them. He put out a statement.
We now have a ceasefire. Those are the two things. I just I just wanted to ask for the record.
Yes. A yes on your part. We'll leave it there.
I honestly don't think I would last very long on Abby Phillips show because if I were Terara set Mayor, I'd probably lose my patience and snap back at Scott Jennings right there. And yeah, people laugh, but the level of restraint some of these panelists show is kind of wild because even if part of it is for show and TV drama, Scott Jennings still comes across with that same smug attitude every time. And honestly, it makes you wonder what it would take for him to ever criticize Donald Trump.
Like even in an extreme hypothetical situation, it feels like he would still refuse to say anything negative, almost as if his loyalty matters more than anything else. And I did like how Abby Phillip pushed him in that moment and basically cornered him into giving a clear answer because moments like that actually matter. And the reason I keep making these videos is because I do think there is value in hearing different perspectives from the left or progressive side or however you want to label it.
But when it comes to a lot of these right-wing voices, it often feels like they are not bringing real arguments, just repeating talking points and propaganda. And you would think that once in a while you might hear something and say, "Okay, I disagree overall. " But that is actually a fair point.
And to be honest, I have even found myself agreeing at times with Tucker Carlson, who I generally strongly dislike, especially when he criticizes Trump on certain issues like war and calls out statements that go too far. So, at least there are moments where he breaks from that line. But with Scott Jennings, it just feels constant, like he is always defending Trump no matter what, without any real push back night after night.
And maybe that kind of role comes with its own rewards, but it is still hard to understand how someone can go on television repeatedly and say those things with a straight face. And let me know your thoughts in the comment.
