CNN Abby Phillip’s Show Panelists Scott Jennings & Tiffany Cross Hurl Personal Insults in Heated Debate

CNNs NewsNight got tense on Wednesday night (April 9) after a debate between Scott Jennings and ex-MSNBC host Tiffany Cross devolved into personal insults.

The show, hosted by Abby Phillip, saw resident conservative panelist Jennings discussing the drama surrounding President Donald Trump‘s trade tariffs, most of which he paused for 90 days on Wednesday amid a plummeting stock market.

After a fellow panelist brought up how Trump’s tariffs had offended allies, just as he did when threatening to buy Greenland, Cross referred to this as a “colonizer’s attitude.”

“It’s a colonizer’s attitude to say, I like it, I’m just gonna steal it,'” Cross said.

Jennings pushed back on this, responding, “Steal what?”

“Land, land,” Cross replied. “You cannot just go and say, ‘I like it, it’s mine now.’ It doesn’t work that way. That is what they’re trying to do. And in this new world order…”

Jennings interrupted, laughing and saying, “What?”

“Yeah, absolutely. When they’re looking at Greenland and say, ‘I like it, I want to take it for mine.’ That is a very colonizer attitude,” Cross continued.

“I have never, ever said we’re going to go to Greenland and ‘colonize it or steal it.’ That’s crazy,” Jennings retorted.

The argument then turned heated when Cross responded, “I’m not even talking about you. You’re not a member of government. So you’re irrelevant on that point. I’m talking about the president of the United States.”

Jennings seemingly took offense to this comment and made things personal when he retorted, “You got fired from your job. How relevant are you?”

Cross previously hosted The Cross Connection on Saturday mornings on MSNBC from 2020 to 2022. The network canceled the show in 2022.

“Scott, if you wanna engage in personal insults…” Cross replied.

“I don’t, but you do,” Jennings added.

The argument continued from there, with Cross telling her co-panelist, “What you lack in the legitimate point, you make up for it in personal insults.”

She added, “The point I am making is in this new world order, we are looking at countries – whether or not they’re an adversary or ally – it is being determined on what kind of deal we can get. And we cannot govern. We cannot legislate that way. We are increasingly isolated on the world stage.”

You can watch the tense argument here.