Scott Jennings Praises Progressive Firebrand Nina Turner

A CNN Tonight panel ended on what host Laura Coates called a “kumbaya moment” as Republican strategist Scott Jennings hailed progressive Nina Turner for their “extremely valuable” talks.

The segment, which also featured John Avlon, consumed the first 27 minutes of the show and spanned multiple commercial breaks. Most of the discussions centered on race-related issues such as Florida banning an Advanced Placement course on African American Studies, a Missouri bill that would ban the teaching of critical race theory in through 12th grade (despite the fact it’s only typically taught in certain graduate courses), and Arkansas banning the term “Latinx” from government documents.

The exchanges between Turner, who managed Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, were often contentious and featured some crosstalk. Nonetheless, the segment managed to stay on the rails.

Coates wrapped up the segment, but Jennings asked to say one more thing:

I think these conversations are extremely valuable. And I just wanted to say something about my friend, Nina. She and I have been on television a thousand of times together. We have had a lot of very difficult conversations. We’ve talked about a lot of sensitive issues. We’ve both talked about a lot of politicians who have done a lot of stupid things and done a lot of dumb things with their offices.

And I just wanted to say, I find our exchanges to be valuable. I know these things sound heated. But I think when you have Nina Turner, Scott and Laura and John and people like us that can have reasonable conversations, it’s better for American civil discourse. I just wanted to say that about my friend and about your show. I think it’s a valuable thing to do.

“Well, everyone nodded when you said friend,” Coates replied. “What a kumbaya moment. Thank you so much. I like it.”

The on-the-rails panel was quite unlike a discussion on CNN last Friday featuring the network’s data guru saying “balls” as many times as humanly possible in an “off-the-rails” segment.

Watch above via CNN.

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