Yes, he said that.
Republican strategist and CNN panelist Scott Jennings got into a heated exchange with CNN host Omar Jiminez and Democratic strategist Maria Cardona, and he didn’t hesitate to post the receipts in an X post after the fact.
Clashing with Jiminez and Cardona, Jennings accused the pair of deliberately ignoring what he called a racially charged tax proposal from New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.
Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist, has pushed for higher taxes on predominantly white neighborhoods as part of his campaign to unseat Mayor Eric Adams.
Jennings took particular aim at Jiminez — the same anchor who once described the fiery 2020 Kenosha riots as “mostly peaceful” — accusing him of running the Kamala Harris media playbook. Then, Jennings dropped the evidence to back it up.
“Nobody is going to be able to walk [in] Manhattan after he defunds the New York City police department, Maria, I wouldn’t, I wouldn‘t advise walking [in] Manhattan after he gets rid of the police force,” Jennings said, with Jiminez cutting in by saying, “Just, just to jump in, just to jump in. Hold on, hold on. Mamdani advocated for defunding NYPD in 2020. He has since said his goal is reform, not defunding. And then also-”
“Oh, you guys are doing that again. It’s old Harris playbook,” Jennings said.
Jiminez went on to say, “Just, just one more thing, point of order. He just said he didn’t want to tax white people specifically, just higher-income neighborhoods that do happen to be majority white.”
“He literally wrote it in a statement, Omar! He literally wrote it down! Are you letting him get off the hook? Why?” an incredulous Jennings asked Jiminez, who responded, “No, I’m saying I am saying that he said that, but not on the basis of race specifically. I’m not saying he didn’t say that.”
“He did say that!” Jennings shot back.
Watch the clip below:
Feel the need to show the receipts here pic.twitter.com/54cmM7Ki65
— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) June 30, 2025
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