Conservative commentators George Conway and Scott Jennings got into a heated argument over the verdict in former President Trump’s hush money trial and other legal battles Friday morning.
Conway, the former Trump ally-turned vocal critic, highlighted various actions taken by the former president and the consequences he now faces in an interview on CNN — an effort to prove his point that Trump wasn’t the victim. The remarks resulted in shouting and accusations of lying between the two commentators, and the hosts jumped in to try to calm the fiery exchange down.
The on-air interaction comes a day after Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, was convicted on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in his Manhattan hush money trial.
“If you don’t want to be held liable for rape like Donald Trump has, don’t grab the woman’s genitalia. If you don’t want to be held liable for defaming the woman that you raped, don’t keep lying about what you did and calling her a nut job,” Conway said in the interview.
“If you don’t want to be indicted for overthrowing the Constitution, don’t start a self-coup. If you don’t want to be indicted for stealing classified documents and obstructing justice, don’t take the classified documents when the government asked for it back,” he added in his remarks, highlighted by Mediaite.
The Republican attorney, who claimed the GOP has shown it has “moral rot,” continued, saying “This isn’t that hard. Donald Trump is not the victim here. Donald Trump … does all these things to himself.”
CNN anchor Kasie Hunt asked Jennings about where the Republican Party is at today, to which he said he disagreed with “a number” of Conway’s arguments.
“He’s talking about the obvious crimes that were supposedly committed, but that’s the core of what a lot of decidedly non-MAGA Republicans are mad about, is that there is no underlying crime,” Jennings responded.
The GOP commentator pressed the group on what Trump’s crime was and said Republicans are questioning how the former president could have defended himself in this situation. Jennings compared the attitudes following the Trump verdict to those after the Senate held hearings focused on sexual assault allegations against then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
“Every wing of the party was vibratingly angry about what was being done to Kavanaugh,” he said in the interview. “I feel and sense that the same thing is happening today, which is why I think you’re probably going to see this backfire politically on the Democrats, and they’re going to regret it.”
Conway sighed, shook his head and disagreed.
“Look, I mean, you know, Scott’s lying, and that’s the problem with the Republican Party,” he said. “It is continually addicted to lying.”
Jennings interrupted, asking what the pundit was accusing him of lying about.
“You’re lying. You’re lying, Scott. You’re lying about the law. You’re lying about what the jury was charged to find,” Conway responded. “They don’t have to find an underlying crime. They had to find the intent to cover up and underlying crime. And the underlying crime was pretty obvious.”
Jennings interjected once again, asking, “What was the crime?”
“You ran for public office, Scott. You know you can’t take money from somebody and reimburse them … as a candidate,” Conway said. “You know that damn well.”
Jennings said he never ran for public office, and Conway said “well, you’re close enough.”
“That’s the problem with the Republican Party. … They are suffused with lies,” he added. “I don’t know why this network is paying Scott to say those lies.”
Hunt interjected, saying “woah” and urging Conway to treat Jennings respectfully.