NewsNation host Chris Cuomo warned CNN analyst Scott Jennings on Wednesday that continuing to use the term “illegal aliens” could provoke a physical confrontation.
Cuomo accused Jennings of behaving like a “bully” and a “tough guy” after he brushed off activist Cameron Kasky’s claim during a recent CNN panel that “you don’t get to say the word ‘illegals’ anymore.”
Jennings pushed back against the criticism, refusing to drop the term and repeatedly challenging Kasky by asking, “How are you going to enforce your edict on me?”
Chris Cuomo warned Scott Jennings that repeatedly using the phrase “illegal aliens” could lead to violent consequences.
“What are you, a bully now? What are you, a tough guy?” Cuomo said in a video posted to social media. “Because you’re talking to this kid, who happens to be right, calling people ‘illegal.’”
Cuomo argued that the term had long been abandoned by both parties in favor of more neutral language. “A long time ago, Democrats and Republicans agreed to call them ‘undocumented’ instead of ‘illegal’ because it seemed inhuman,” he said. “That’s why they changed the vernacular, and you know it.”
He continued to mock Jennings, adding, “What are you, you’re a tough guy now? I thought you were supposed to be the simpering-but-open-to-conversation Trump defender.”
Cuomo then escalated his warning, suggesting Jennings could be physically confronted over his language. “Be careful. You wanna be a tough guy, there are plenty of tough guys out there,” he said. “You wanna see how somebody can make you say ‘illegal’? And then what are you gonna do—sue, tough guy?”
The former CNN anchor accused Jennings of acting like a “bully” and a “tough guy.”
He went on to issue a blunt warning: “So if somebody beats your ass because you’re being rude and disrespectful and causing division in this country — causing distress and pain all over the streets and making people want to hurt one another — if you really want to be a part of that, as the expression goes, FAFO.
“Don’t be a tough guy.”
