A roundtable uproar on “CNN NewsNight” erupted Tuesday when Abby Phillip and other guests clashed with conservative panelist Scott Jennings over President Donald Trump’s tariff policies.
The on-air shouting match reached a fever pitch at one point, with panelists talking over each other after Jennings defended Trump’s whiplashing tariff agenda.
A few months ago, Trump declared April 2 “Liberation Day” as he announced a series of astronomical tax hikes on dozens of U.S. trading partners. At the time, he insisted the impossibly sky-high tariffs were “retaliatory” for high tariffs on U.S. goods and that the U.S. was just responding in kind.
But it turns out that was false, that Trump confused high U.S. trade deficits with tariffs on American products. And he has since significantly lowered tariffs, some higher than 100% at one point, to much lower tax levels.
Jennings attacked liberal experts who predicted a coming recession back in April and derided them for suggesting Trump’s tariffs would result in economic turmoil.
“I’d like to build a DeLorean and go back to April,” Jennings said before recounting the doom and gloom economic predictions over the tariffs at the time.
“What was happening in April, Scott?” Phillip asked.
All hell broke loose among the panelists at the table as CNN’s Richard Quest interjected, “Just a second, sir.
“You called the recession,” Jennings said accusingly, referring to Quest’s forecast prediction and how he took his shoe off to emphasize the point. “You took your shoe off.”
“Listen, Scott. It’s too early to give a final verdict,” Quest said as he took off his shoe again.
Phillip then jumped in, asking Jennings about the situation in April, arguing there’s been no recession yet because Trump never implemented the massive tariffs.
“The president was implementing his tariff agenda,” Jennings answered.
“And what were the levels?” Phillip asked.
“Well, they were different for different countries … but every single person predicted calamity,” Jennings pointed out.
Phillip pointed out that the tariffs Trump was threatening to enact in April were “two to three times higher than the current tariff levels.”
“Did those tariffs go into place, Scott?” Phillip pressed.
“It’s different for every country,” Jennings responded.
“It’s a simple question. Did those tariffs go into place?” she asked again.
Jennings admitted some of the tariffs have not been implemented. That’s when Phillip emphasized none of the threatened taxes in April have gone into effect.
As guests talked over each other, Phillip called Jennings “completely disingenuous.”
“Give me one second. Please let me finish. It is completely disingenuous to suggest that what economists said would happen if Trump imposed 50 and 60 percent tariffs, ‘oh, let’s jump all the way up to 135 percent level tariffs,’ on this economy would have been a recession. Those levels never happened, which is why there has been no recession. It’s not that complicated,” she concluded.
The clock is ticking down to the Aug. 1 deadline, when Trump is scheduled to impose another round of taxes on dozens of countries with rates up to 50 percent. That’s in addition to tariffs on U.S. trading partners that the administration has already announced or negotiated through new agreements.
