Scott Jennings on Common Sense, Socialism and the Fight for America’s Future

Scott Jennings (0:00)

That's the lesson of the founding, is that the bigger and farther away the government is, the less it cares about you and the angrier the people get. And I think that's one thing about Trump's terms, is that you say what you want about the man, but he is more in touch with and more transparent to the American people than any other modern president.

He has brought the presidency to the American people. Now, it doesn't mean you have to agree with everything he's done, and some people certainly don't, but there is a closeness between his government and the American people, and I think there's a lot of people in America who feel like they have more access, or that the president is more accessible than he has ever been, and I think that's fundamentally a good thing. But to me, honestly, the great lesson is, the larger the government and the more remote the government, the worse off you are, the worse off your business will be, the worse off your school will be, whatever it is that you care about, a larger, more distant and aloof government is ultimately bad for outcomes.

SPEAKER_2 (1:00)

Americans are capable of achieving extraordinary things when they have the freedom and opportunity to do so. This is American Potential.

David From (1:14)

Hey everyone and welcome to the American Potential Podcast. I'm your host David From. We're here in the Heartland in Iowa at the heart of our nation's celebration, part of Americans for Prosperity's celebration of America's 250th birthday.

And we're really, I'm super happy to be joined by Scott Jennings, who you know from CNN, where he's speaking the truth, battling with the folks on the left and representing pro-growth, pro-freedom policies, but also from the Scott Jennings show and from other appearances all around talking about our values. So I'm really excited for Scott to join us here and to have a conversation. Thanks for being with us, Scott.

Scott Jennings (1:55)

Glad to be here. Glad to be in Iowa. Thank you.

David From (1:57)

Yeah, it is just kind of really is the heartland, you know. It really, I mean, we met Dan Gable earlier, talked about Field of Dreams. It's just kind of America.

Scott Jennings (2:06)

It is. It's the people of Iowa.

This is one of the most important states in a country in most election cycles. I find that the people of Iowa are more politically tuned in and politically astute than almost anywhere because of the role that this state has played in our politics.

David From (2:23)

Yeah.

So give me a little background on just like how you got involved in politics, public policy and all that. Yeah.

Scott Jennings (2:31)

Well, when I was a kid, very young kid growing up in West Kentucky, I grew up in a town called Dawson Springs, coal mining town, and my grandfather-

David From (2:39)

Like Dawson Creek.

Scott Jennings (2:40)

Not Dawson's Creek. That's no, they had a higher net worth area code there.

But we were in West Kentucky and my grandfather was a local elected official. I grew up in a family of Democrats, but I learned a lot about local government and public service from my granddad.

So it was something that was always on my mind. The older I got, I just found myself being more and more interested in it. Then when I was in high school, that was 1994, the Republican Revolution under Newt Gingrich, the contract with America. At this point, I'm just on the verge of becoming a voter. That time period really spoke to me because I just thought everything they were doing was common sense and I felt like a Republican, which came as a huge surprise to all the Democrats in my family when I actually did vote Republican in the 1996 presidential election. But from there, I got very interested in media. I worked in radio in West Kentucky and then when I went to the University of Louisville, I worked in radio there. So I got really interested in the media side of our national public affairs. For a long time, I thought I was going to be a journalist and I was for a few years. But then I went off into political operativism and did that for a big chunk of my career. But as you know, now I'm back in the media and back on CNN and back on Salem Radio.

David From (4:00)

Yeah. Well, Salem has been great partners to us and we've been really appreciative for their partnership and your partnership.

So I think when a lot of people really first saw you was on CNN.