Republican strategist Scott Jennings called out “CNN NewsNight” guest host Audie Cornish Tuesday night after she claimed considering Jordan Neely a victim was “a Christian thing.”
Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man with a criminal record, died after being restrained by Daniel Penny, a Marine Corps veteran who responded to Neely’s “threatening” behavior while riding the New York City subway, May 1, 2023. Cornish invoked religion after Jennings questioned whether Neely was the “victim” in the incident.
“You keep referring — you keep referring to Neely as the victim,” Jennings said. “I think Penny is the victim in this case, and I think the people on that — I think people on the train are the victims.”
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“I have a tendency to call the people who die a victim,” Cornish responded. “We have different ideas about that. But to my mind, someone lost a child and I’m always going to feel for that person. That’s just how I’m built. It’s like a Christian thing.”
Jennings, who previously clashed with panelists on CNN about Penny, cut in after Cornish’s comments.
“Are you saying — are you saying I’m not a Christian?” Jennings asked, with Cornish responding defensively, “I’m not at all. I just want to make sure that you understand it’s a values-based comment, not a political one.”
“Are you saying I don’t have any values?” Jennings shot back at Cornish, prompting former CNN host John Avlon, who ran for a seat in the House of Representatives as a Democrat, to cut in and claim, “No, Scott, she is not saying that. Stop it.”
A Manhattan jury found Penny not guilty Monday on charges of criminally negligent homicide in the death of Neely after a judge dismissed a manslaughter charge Friday against the Marine veteran. The ex-Marine still faces a civil lawsuit filed by Neely’s father.
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