CNN’s token Republican Scott Jennings had a hard time defending President Trump‘s South African “genocide” talk when confronted with the facts on NewsNight with Abby Phillip.
At the top of the show Wednesday evening, the host dived into the big story of the day: Trump‘s “Oval Office ambush” of a visiting South African delegation, including President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Ramaphosa and his delegates thought they were coming for a meeting about a reset in relations between the two nations. Instead, South Africa’s most famous white man, Elon Musk, watched on as Trump went on a rant about the “genocide” allegedly being committed against white farmers in the country.
“This is straight out of the conspiracy land of the far right, and it is not based in fact,” Phillip said on her show of the MAGA “genocide” claim. “It’s amazing that this has actually become the foreign policy of the United States,” she went on. “We have the numbers, it’s completely unsubstantiated.”
Jennings, who had watched on with a furrowed brow, then intervened. “You’re saying it’s not true that some white farmers have been murdered?” he asked.
Phillip responded to clarify that she was saying it is not true that there is a genocide of white farmers in South Africa, as Trump claimed. Genocide, according to Merriam-Webster, is “the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group.”
“OK, whatever you call it, white farmers have been murdered?” Jennings continued.
As Jennings pressed, Phillip hit back by simply ask him about the facts. “Hold on a second,” she demanded, “How many white farmers have been murdered?”
This forced Jennings to admit: “I don’t know. Several…”
“No, no, how many?” the host continued. “How many?”
Jennings repeated that he didn’t know the figure. “I know why you don’t know,” Phillip said. “Because those numbers don’t exist broken down by race.”
“I mean I wouldn’t trust the South African government to tell me, I know that,” Jennings said.
“How many Black farmers have been murdered in South Africa?” Phillip asked.
“Look, you guys are so triggered over 59 people…” Jennings said, again unable to answer the question.
“I haven’t even brought up the people, the white people that Trump picked out because they were white and told them they could come to the country,” Phillip said, referring to the 59 white South Africans who moved to the U.S. to resettle earlier this month after Trump granted them refugee status, claiming they faced racial discrimination.
“How much racial killing are you going to condone?” Jennings said, scrambling for a comeback.
Phillip then displayed statistics from South African authorities showing that, from April to December in 2024, a total of 19,696 murders were committed in South Africa. Only 36 were committed on farms, and just seven victims were farmers. Official data is not broken down by race, so it is not known how many victims were white or Black.
“According to who?! According to who?!” Jennings demanded as Phillip read out the stats contradicting Trump’s claims.
Phillip later responded that “the vast majority of people killed on South African farms are Black,” adding, “Where’s the concern about them?”
Jennings spluttered: “The concern is that there are white farmers who have had violence committed against them and they’re being threatened every single day… there’s 59 people and you’re triggered about 59 people and I don’t know why…”
“I haven’t mentioned anything about 59 people,” Phillip pointed out. “Why are you only concerned about white people?” she then pointedly asked.
“I’m only concerned about this story because these 59 people asked for status, they’re getting status and now everybody’s freaking out about it,” he said, changing the subject.
Phillip later accused Jennings of “taking a fringe movement and trying to make it a characteristic of an entire nation.”
