GOP pundit Scott Jennings was challenged to an epic showdown by Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell after Jennings defended Elon Musk's controversial Nazi salute gesture.
Jennings downplayed Musk's infamous one-armed gesture seen during his speech at the Capital One Arena in Washington DC for the inauguration of Republican President Donald Trump's second term in the White House.
The Tesla CEO thanked the MAGA crowd for "making it happen" and beat his chest with his right arm and extended it straight out in front of him. He repeated the same gesture a second time.
RELATED: Neo-Nazis Celebrate After Elon Musk Appeared To Give Nazi Salute At Trump Inauguration Parade
His arm movement was reminiscent of a Nazi salute, although some on the right tried defending Musk.
Musk himself later commented on the scandal on his platform X (formerly Twitter), writing, "Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The 'everyone is Hitler' attack is sooo tired."
On Monday evening during a segment on CNN's NewsNight with Abby Phillip, Rampell invited Jennings to repeat Musk's gesture during the live broadcast if he thought it was so innocuous.
You can watch the heated moment here.
The standoff that froze Jennings started when Rampell mentioned Musk's gesture and his support for AfD (Alternative for Germany, or Deutschland)–a "Nazi adjacent" far-right political party in Germany.
When host Abby Phillip reminded Rampell of the questionable Nazi jokes Musk tweeted in response to his backlash, Rampell remained perplexed as to how he “keeps getting the benefit of the doubt" from supporters.
Jennings, a conservative political strategist, commented:
“We’ve moved on from Trump derangement syndrome to Elon derangement syndrome."
“Anybody who is asserting this thing he did on the stage the other day was a Sieg Heil, which I just heard you say, you know, lawyer up maybe because, absolute[ly] ridiculous thing to say.”
This prompted Rampell to counter:
“Why don’t you do it on TV right now? Why don’t you do it on TV right now if you think it’s so, so banal.”
Jennings deflected with more ranting.
"This salute trutherism is outrageous," he groused, before being cut off by Rampell who asked again, “So do it right now on TV."
"This is the biggest conspiracy theory," Jennings began, but was again overtaken by Rampell who continued pushing him on the challenge.
“Do it right now on TV. If you think it’s normal, if you think it’s a normal way to greet people, do it right now on TV! Why won’t you?” she said, before Phillip restored order to continue the discussion.
Viewers were astounded by Rampell's fierce persistence in not letting her challenger off the hook.
@thesavermont.bsky.social
Others slammed Jennings.
Following Musk's Nazi-like salute, neo-Nazis celebrated, prompting the leader of the American neo-Nazi group Blood Tribe to comment, “I don’t care if this was a mistake, I’m going to enjoy the tears over it."
Evan Kilgore, a holocaust denier, also commented on social media, describing what he witnessed from Musk, "incredible."
“Holy crap … did Elon Musk just Heil Hitler at the Trump Inauguration Rally in Washington DC… This is incredible. We are so back.” he wrote.
