CNN’s Scott Jennings made a damning comparison of Joe Biden to Jimmy Carter as the late president’s funeral was broadcast on Thursday morning.
Jennings, a Republican strategist, said that Carter was considered a failed president whose legacy hung heavily over the Democratic Party for years after he left office.
The pundit argued that Biden’s presidency could similarly affect the party.
‘For Democrats, this is the first failed presidency since Carter,’ Jennings said as he appeared alongside host Kasie Hunt and fellow panelists on CNN This Morning.
‘Clinton got reelected. Obama got reelected,’ he continued, as both politicians would arrive at the ceremony a few hours later. ‘Democrats I think have then judged those [presidencies] to be successes.
‘But Carter was a failed president,’ Jennings continued, adding how ‘the image and sort of caricature of Carter has hung over the Democratic Party for a very long time.’
That’s when the senior political commentator publicly pondered whether a similar attitude will be felt toward Biden upon his exit from the Oval Office – declaring such thoughts are sure to be his mind.
The assertion appeared to leave other panelists at a brief loss for words, as none shared the Republican’s stance on the subject. All appeared to disagree.
CNN Senior Political Commentator Scott Jennings, a Republican strategist who only days ago engaged in a relentless on-air undressing of the Democrat, compared how Carter will be remembered to public sentiment surrounding the nearly concluded presidency of Joe Biden
The rest of the panel remained stone-faced during Jennings’ speech, which saw him compare – and condemn – both Carter and Biden’s respective legacies
‘If you’re Joe Biden, you must be wondering, “Is how I’m leaving office going to hang over my party,”‘ Jennings went on, speaking from the 82-year-old’s perspective.
‘”Not only did I not get reelected, but I also brought back Donald Trump stronger and more influential than ever.”‘
Hours later, Biden eulogized the man he endorsed back when he was a 31-year-old senator in Delaware, after Jennings painted his post-presidency work as meddlesome and potentially anti-Semitic a few days before.
‘[President Carter] taught me that strength of character is more than a title or the power we hold,’ Biden said at the funeral held in Washington.
‘It’s the strength to understand that everyone should be treated with dignity and respect,’ he went on.
‘To young people, to anyone in search of meaning and purpose, study the power of Jimmy Carter’s example.’
In a statement after the 100-year-old’s death, Trump appeared to take a similar stance about Carter, while conceding the two did have different political views.
‘[He] did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans’, he said, not offering a eulogy. ‘For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude.’
Biden, 82, offered his own eulogy, where he painted Carter as a successful president and hero
Jennings instead said that ‘if you’re Joe Biden, you must be wondering, “Is how I’m leaving office going to hang over my party. Not only did I not get reelected, but I also brought back Donald Trump stronger and more influential than ever”‘
Meanwhile, the former president’s son, Chip Carter, framed his father as ‘a hero’, saying ‘ he was a hero, not only to me, but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love.
‘We thank you for honoring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs.’
But those beliefs came into question last week , when a merciless Jennings refused to uphold actions and decisions made by the politician a day after his death.
‘Let me preface my take by offering condolences to the Carter family on his death,’ the senior political commentator began, this time offering the remarks on CNN NewsNight.
‘He was obviously one of the most unique post-presidents we’ve ever had because he lived so long and he did so much. That having been said, he was a terrible president,’ Jennings declared.
‘That’s why he lost in a landslide after his one term,’ Jennings added, referencing how voters disillusioned by inflation overwhelmingly voted for Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980. If it’s possible, I think he was even a worse ex-president.’
The condemnation continued from there, despite many calling Carter’s post-presidency work prolific.
Jennings, a political strategist and pundit, instead framed it as ‘meddling’, before rattling off reasons for his very public rebuff.
Last week, Jennings embarked on a merciless denunciation of the late president – accusing him of post-presidency meddling and ‘saddling up to dictators’
The Republican attacked Carter over what he painted as meddling in the Middle East and Asia after his presidency, and slammed his support for Palestine. Carter is known for brokering a famed peace treaty between Israel and Egypt in 1979, seen here
Carter was a staunch critic of Israel’s post-October 7 campaign in Gaza, he said – before obliquely bringing up how he held court with figures like Syria’s Bashar al-Assad and members of Hamas in hopes for diplomacy.
‘Saddling up to dictators around the world… his vehement views, anti-Israel views, and more than dabbling in anti-Semitism over the years,’ Jennings sniped as a result.
Carter, meanwhile, also potentially averted a war between the United States and North Korea in 1994 – thanks to a diplomatic visit to then leader Kim Il Sung after the country announced it was throwing international nuclear inspectors out of it.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner would his talks with the communist leader a ‘miracle’, after emerging in Seoul after two days to announce the ‘crisis [was] over’.
The move, however, angered the Clinton White House, as Carter made the trip as private citizen. Clinton and wife Hillary still attended the funeral, as did former President George W. Bush.
Both praised the politician in their own statements, but were not asked to speak at the ceremony.
