"Either Trump has to be indicted or Merrick Garland has to resign," says CNN's Scott Jennings

"We're at the circus now. We're all under the big top," Jennings said on Sunday's "State of the Union"

By Kelly McClure

Nights & Weekends Editor

Published August 14, 2022 1:27PM (EDT)

Donald Trump | CNN logo (Salon/Getty Images/CNN)
Donald Trump | CNN logo (Salon/Getty Images/CNN)

During Sunday's "State of the Union," CNN political commentator Scott Jennings spoke on the aftermath of the FBI's raid of Mar-a-Lago saying "Either Trump has to be indicted or Merrick Garland has to resign."

"In the immediate aftermath of the raid, there was some polling done that showed him [Trump] ticking up a few points among Republicans because there is a reflexiveness with him — and I heard this from people who are even ready to move on from Trump — that 'we don't wanna let them,' you know, like 'we wanna take him out. We don't wanna let them do it.' So I do think, at least temporarily, that's helping him," Jennings said. "I sort of felt this week like, we're at the circus now. We're all under the big top. And this can only end one of two ways. He has to be indicted, or Merrick Garland has to resign."

After Monday's raid of Mar-a-Lago, Garland made it clear that he "personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant," to carry out the raid, in which the FBI sought out documents that Trump took from the White House after his presidency, breaking legal protocol. And now that that search has been conducted, many are wondering what will happen from here.

"You can't raid the president's house — the former president and possible future candidate — and say to the American people 'we think he's violating three different laws,' and then do nothing,"Jennings said.

When asked if he thought the raid was justified, Jennings commented, ". . . If you think there are classified documents — which we don't know what it is, by the way — but if you've got these documents, and they're not supposed to be out in the open, absolutely. But this cannot end in any other way. How could it possibly end with just 'well, we got him back and it's over now.' There's no going back now."


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By Kelly McClure

Kelly McClure is Salon's Nights and Weekends Editor covering daily news, politics and culture. Her work has been featured in Vulture, The A.V. Club, Vanity Fair, Cosmopolitan, Nylon, Vice, and elsewhere. She is the author of Something is Always Happening Somewhere.

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Cnn Merrick Garland Scott Jennings State Of The Union Trump