Scott Jennings didn’t just offer a fact check—he delivered a masterclass in real-time correction that left CNN contributor Cari Champion thoroughly humiliated for being ignorant of the news. Champion tried to portray the peace negotiations between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo as unresolved, seemingly oblivious to the fact that a peace agreement had been signed in the Oval Office just one day earlier.
“But to your point, the job is not finished. In sports, they always say that, may Kobe Bryant rest in peace, job's not done. A foreign minister from Rwanda has told CNN, he said he's committed to supporting this ongoing negotiation, but warned that ending the conflict will depend on political will and good faith. And he doesn't know if that is true, referring to the DRC's government,” Champion said.
“It’s not done. It’s not done,” she insisted.
Jennings, however, wasn’t having it. He interrupted with a pointed rebuke: “You didn’t watch the news yesterday. They literally announced it in the Oval Office.” His tone was incredulous, and the implication was clear—Champion was out of the loop on a major development that had just made headlines. He doubled down, repeating, “Literally, in the Oval Office Friday afternoon.”
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Champion, perhaps sensing her footing slipping, tried to pivot the conversation. “Can I say something. You said something earlier, you said, and you kind of agree with Pete when he says there’s something about the media where they feel like they want to disprove Donald Trump. Is that what you said? Something to that effect.”
Jennings, unfazed, replied, “It happens every day.”
Champion pressed further, “And you think that’s what they want to do, right? You think the media is going in to say he’s lying and he’s not telling the truth? Do you believe that wholeheartedly.”
Jennings didn’t hesitate: “Correct, that is the standing disposition.”
The exchange quickly became a referendum on truth-telling in politics. Champion asked, “Do you believe that he tells the truth?” Jennings, without missing a beat, said, “Yes, I do.”
Champion then asked, “You think the president tells the truth, this current president tells the truth often?”
Jennings replied without any hesitation, “Yes, I do.”
Champion, still searching for a foothold, tried to steer the conversation back to process: “OK, I also think that to our point that we haven’t established, he does announce things before it’s too soon.”
But Jennings wasn’t letting go. “They literally had the countries in there,” he shot back, referring to the Oval Office announcement she had apparently missed. He then delivered the coup de grâce: “I feel like you should watch the news before you come out here.”
Apparently unwilling to acknowledge her own ignorance of the news, she once again attempted to regain the upper hand. “I feel like you should stop trying to defend him just to defend. I think you should stop trying to say—” But by then, the damage was done. Jennings had not only fact-checked her in real time, but had also exposed a glaring gap in her knowledge, all while maintaining a calm, almost clinical composure.
The moment was a textbook example of how a well-timed, fact-based rebuttal can not only correct the record, but also leave an opponent scrambling. But it also revealed something deeper: Cari Champion’s hatred of Donald Trump blinded her to reality. Her determination to push a narrative led her straight into a buzzsaw of facts. Jennings’s insistence on the truth, his refusal to be derailed by rhetorical pivots, and his final admonition to “watch the news before you come out here” left no doubt as to who had command of the facts—and the conversation.
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