Exclusive | Here's why MAGA-world wants anyone but rumored frontrunner Scott Jennings as next White House press secretary

Exclusive | Here's why MAGA-world wants anyone but rumored frontrunner Scott Jennings as next White House press secretary. New York Post, Aug 20, 2026.

WASHINGTON -- CNN pundit Scott Jennings has become Washington's most talked-about contender to replace Karoline Leavitt as White House press secretary, but some of President Trump's fiercest allies are trying to derail Jennings over his longstanding ties to Sen. Mitch McConnell, The Post has learned.

Jennings penned a CNN op-ed declaring that "Trump caused this insurrection with his lies and conspiracy theories about the election process being rigged against him."

"These are domestic terrorists," he opined about the participants, whom Trump mass-pardoned upon retaking office last year, "and they ought to be treated like any other terrorist uprising with the full force and fury of the US government."

In recent days, Jennings has used his social media platform and his CNN perch to defend both Trump and his longtime aide Natalie Harp, whose working relationship has been the subject of suggestive comments by Democrats like Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.).