CNN political commentator Scott Jennings tore into MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell this week, calling the primetime host a “lunatic” and a “failed media personality” after O’Donnell accused him of being paid to “lie” about Donald Trump on-air.
“There’s this lunatic on MSNBC at 10 o’clock every night named Lawrence O’Donnell,” Jennings said Wednesday on “The Scott Jennings Radio Show.”
“I had sort of forgotten that he was a thing. But I guess he still has a show and he went crazy on yours truly the other night.”
Jennings said O’Donnell’s attack was fueled by jealousy over sagging ratings. He attacked the former aide to the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) as a “failed media personality.”
“Here is Lawrence O’Donnell’s real problem. He’s irrelevant. Nobody likes his show,” Jennings said.
The conservative pundit, who frequently appears on CNN’s “NewsNight with Abby Phillip,” claimed the show was beating O’Donnell’s “Last Word” in the Nielsen ratings by “30% on a nightly basis” among viewers aged 25 to 54 — the key advertising demographic — in the month of October.
In terms of overall viewership, O’Donnell generates a larger audience than Phillip, according to Nielsen figures.
“Can you imagine having a television show on a network and you spend your precious time on that network complaining about what someone else is doing on another network?” Jennings said.
“That’s how much pressure Lawrence O’Donnell is under.”
O’Donnell kicked off the feud Monday on his show when he torched CNN for what he called “absurdly degraded” programming under network chief Mark Thompson.
“The head of CNN … hired by the Trump-supporting owner and operator of CNN, is an Englishman who thinks paying Scott Jennings to lie about Donald Trump is money very well spent,” O’Donnell said.
He accused Jennings, a former aide to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), of transforming into “a rabid, lying Trump supporter” to boost his profile.
“When he first started appearing on television, he was capable of criticizing some of the more extreme Trump positions,” O’Donnell said.
“But Scott Jennings figured out where the money is and how he could get his own podcast and decided to become the ‘JD Vance of CNN.’”
O’Donnell also mocked Thompson’s recent remarks comparing Jennings to D’Artagnan of “The Three Musketeers,” calling the compliment “the single goofiest thing ever said by anyone in charge of CNN.”
“Good television,” O’Donnell scoffed. “Here’s how bad that television is that they make over there. The show that Scott Jennings frequents the most is on opposite this program. And that show on a good night gets half — half of the audience of this show.”
In an interview with Mediaite earlier this month, Thompson likened Jennings to D’Artagnan for his spirited clashes with liberal panelists.
“He’s got his sword out and he’s got about four Democrats against him, but he spiked them all off,” Thompson said.
“And it makes for not just good television, but also for, in some ways, a slightly deeper testing of the ideas all the way around that table.”
The Post has sought comment from CNN and MSNBC.
