Republican strategist Scott Jennings called out CNN host Omar Jiminez and Democratic strategist Maria Cardona, saying they were ignoring the race-based tax plan that Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani of New York City placed in his platform.
Mamdani called for increasing taxes on predominantly white neighborhoods of New York during his campaign to win the Democratic Party’s nomination to challenge Democratic Mayor Eric Adams of New York City. Jennings accused Jiminez, who described the 2020 riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin, as “mostly peaceful,” of using a “playbook” similar to that of former Vice President Kamala Harris while later dropping receipts to disprove his claim.
“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, while Jiminez went on to say, “Just, just one more thing, point of order. He just said he he didn’t want to tax white people specifically, just higher income neighborhoods that do happen to be majority white.”
Cardona chimed in as Jiminez was disputing Jennings’ statements during the exchange.
“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.”