After four years of pretending President Joe Biden didn’t suffer severe cognitive decline, there appears to be a sudden desire to scrutinize every utterance made by President Donald Trump, in the hopes of finding a kernel of dementia upon which to seize. CNN’s Scott Jennings rightly called that out on today’s State of the Union panel.
Watch as Jennings shuts down a couple of Biden-Harris operatives:
WATCH: @ScottJenningsKY dunks on panel libs suddenly interested in presidential cognitive decline after hidin’ Biden for the prior four years pic.twitter.com/63Ykgs4R70
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) December 21, 2025
BAKARI SELLERS: I don’t know. I love my panelists that are here on this holiday season, but nobody acknowledged the fact that Donald Trump’s old. Like, he’s extremely old. And he is burgeoning on senility, and we can see that. And the fact that we just went through a president who went through that. And Scott and Kristen, they can’t — they will not…
JENNINGS: Are you really going to try this today?
SELLERS: They are not going to say anything without…
JENNINGS: After Biden?
SELLERS: … mentioning Joe Biden — exactly, exactly.
JENNINGS: Come on. Come on, Bakari.
SELLERS: But this president is old.
JENNINGS: Unbelievable.
SELLERS: And what — that’s what we’re seeing. It’s not unbelievable. It is. I mean, he’s talking about undergarments, panties. He’s talking about, — it’s not a weave. That’s not what we’re seeing. We’re seeing somebody’s old uncle. I mean, let’s just call it what it is. Yes, yes, the American public saw Joe Biden get old and decrepit in the White House.
JENNINGS: But we didn’t see him for a while. He wasn’t…
(CROSSTALK)
SELLERS: What they’re seeing right now is Donald Trump doing the same thing. Let’s just admit — let’s call it what it is.
BEDINGFIELD: Absolutely, he is old. I think there are questions about whether he’s all there. I think that’s a reasonable thing to ask, given what we’ve seen. But I would say, I think the big difference here politically from 2024, where he would give these rambling speeches that his base loved, is, he has lost the command and control of his caucus of the Republican Party. We’re seeing increasingly splits on key issues. They’re divided on health care. There’s — this question of Israel is absolutely ripping the new right, as Senator Lankford is calling it, apart.
HUNT: Yes, we’re going to talk about that next, yes.
BEDINGFIELD: And so, when you are — when you have lost control of your party, giving these rambling speeches that maybe leave some question as to whether you’re totally in command, that is an issue that’s going to keep compounding on itself.
JENNINGS: This is like maybe your Christmas wish, but it is not a reality. The president is the head of the Republican Party. He’s never been stronger among Republicans than he is right now. And he’s always had a broad…
HUNT: He’s fallen a little bit back with Republicans in some polls.
BEDINGFIELD: Is that why he spent six months fighting his party on the Epstein files?
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: You guys have been desperate for 10 years to find the moment where Donald Trump is no longer going to be accepted by the — he is the leader of the Republican Party. He is going to continue to be the leader of the Republican Party.
The record must reflect that the segment was predicated upon a dishonest compendium of out-of-context snippets from President Trump’s recent speech on the economy in North Carolina:
After four years of pretending President Joe Biden didn’t suffer severe cognitive decline, there appears to be a sudden desire to scrutinize every utterance made by President Donald Trump, in the hopes of finding a kernel of dementia upon which to seize. CNN’s Scott Jennings rightly called that out on today’s State of the Union panel.
DONALD TRUMP: I’m probably very neurotic. I always say controlled neurosis is good, being neurotic, no good. But if it’s controlled, that’s OK.
(VIDEO SWIPE)
I would look at a chair. The arm of a chair was very important to me. I said, “I like that chair, but this arm has to be a different shape.”
(VIDEO SWIPE)
They went into my wife’s closet.
(VIDEO SWIPE)
Her undergarments, for some reason, is sometimes referred to as panties. They’re folded perfect.
(VIDEO SWIPE)
I think that she steams them.
KASIE HUNT: That was President Trump in North Carolina delivering what was technically billed as an economic speech.
This network, among others, basically Rip Van Winkled its way through the Biden presidency. One of the hosts for whom Kasie Hunt filled in this morning routinely dismissed any talk of a Biden decline as mockery of an elderly man’s stutter, only to turn around and monetize Biden’s decline via a book. But now, the decline narrative. Trump’s remarks were just thrown together with no contextual rhyme or reason, as if he just rambled on about the First Lady’s undergarments. The Kevin Liptak column upon which the segment seems to be predicated makes clear that the reference to undergarments was within the broad context of the FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago:
“I think she steams them,” he offered at one point, hoping to underscore the violation Melania Trump felt when, in his telling, FBI agents rummaged through the pristine undergarments — “sometimes referred to as panties” — during their 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago.
The FBI didn’t think they had probable cause for that raid, by the way, but this wasn’t discussed either.
Scott Jennings had none of this, shutting down both Bakari Sellers and Kate Bedingfield, deriding their speculation as yet another “walls are closing in” moment where they wishcast that THIS IS THE MOMENT where the base ditches Trump. Not so.
It will be interesting to see how far the media will go to try and enable the cognitive decline for Trump after playing Praetorian Guard for Biden. As is often the case: it’s (D)ifferent.
Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned segment as aired on CNN State of the Union on Sunday, December 21st, 2025:
DONALD TRUMP: I’m probably very neurotic. I always say controlled neurosis is good, being neurotic, no good. But if it’s controlled, that’s OK.
(VIDEO SWIPE)
I would look at a chair. The arm of a chair was very important to me. I said, “I like that chair, but this arm has to be a different shape.”
(VIDEO SWIPE)
They went into my wife’s closet.
(VIDEO SWIPE)
Her undergarments, for some reason, is sometimes referred to as panties. They’re folded perfect.
(VIDEO SWIPE)
I think that she steams them.
KASIE HUNT: That was President Trump in North Carolina delivering what was technically billed as an economic speech. My panel is here with me now. Scott Jennings, the tangents that we saw from the president were off of the affordability message that his team would like him to stay on.
SCOTT JENNINGS: Look, the president for a long time now has done the weave. He gives these speeches. He hits different topics. And the crowds like it. It’s what he does. I mean, he did hit affordability messages last night. And he’s going to continue to hit messages about what the Republicans are doing and his plan versus the hole the Democrats left us in. But this is the way he does his rallies. And the people like it. And so I don’t think it’s going to change.
HUNT: Kate?
KATE BEDINGFIELD: Well, I think the people are liking it less and less. The MAGA base likes it, but we see evidence that Trump is dropping with independents, he’s dropping with moderates, as we’re looking toward a midterm election where people are concerned about costs. When you have him out there in his opportunity to say to people, I get it and here’s what I’m doing to make your life better, and you have him talking about armchairs and God knows what else, that’s a missed opportunity. And I think he is going to pay a price for that.
KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON: From my perspective, the rallies, you’re right, he always does this weave. He goes all over the place. But, for me, what’s more notable is, this week, he did have a speech with a teleprompter. He gave an address to the country where he was talking about affordability. The problem that I think is not that he’s not on the right topic, because now he’s actually has shifted mostly to being on the right topic if he’s talking about cost of living. My next step of advice for him would be to talk about it in the right way, which would be finding a way to acknowledge that, even though he wants to champion what he thinks is a great economy, Americans aren’t feeling it yet. If you have too big a disconnect on that question, it’s going to turn out politically perilous for him. Acknowledge that there’s a way to go. Acknowledge that people are not necessarily feeling great now. That’s the only way that this affordability message is going to land with the types of voters that I think need to hear it.
BAKARI SELLERS: I don’t know. I love my panelists that are here on this holiday season, but nobody acknowledged the fact that Donald Trump’s old. Like, he’s extremely old. And he is burgeoning on senility, and we can see that. And the fact that we just went through a president who went through that. And Scott and Kristen, they can’t — they will not…
JENNINGS: Are you really going to try this today?
SELLERS: They are not going to say anything without…
JENNINGS: After Biden?
SELLERS: … mentioning Joe Biden — exactly, exactly.
JENNINGS: Come on. Come on, Bakari.
SELLERS: But this president is old.
JENNINGS: Unbelievable.
SELLERS: And what — that’s what we’re seeing. It’s not unbelievable. It is. I mean, he’s talking about undergarments, panties. He’s talking about, — it’s not a weave. That’s not what we’re seeing. We’re seeing somebody’s old uncle. I mean, let’s just call it what it is. Yes, yes, the American public saw Joe Biden get old and decrepit in the White House.
JENNINGS: But we didn’t see him for a while. He wasn’t…
(CROSSTALK)
SELLERS: What they’re seeing right now is Donald Trump doing the same thing. Let’s just admit — let’s call it what it is.
BEDINGFIELD: Absolutely, he is old. I think there are questions about whether he’s all there. I think that’s a reasonable thing to ask, given what we’ve seen. But I would say, I think the big difference here politically from 2024, where he would give these rambling speeches that his base loved, is, he has lost the command and control of his caucus of the Republican Party. We’re seeing increasingly splits on key issues. They’re divided on health care. There’s — this question of Israel is absolutely ripping the new right, as Senator Lankford is calling it, apart.
HUNT: Yes, we’re going to talk about that next, yes.
BEDINGFIELD: And so, when you are — when you have lost control of your party, giving these rambling speeches that maybe leave some question as to whether you’re totally in command, that is an issue that’s going to keep compounding on itself.
JENNINGS: This is like maybe your Christmas wish, but it is not a reality. The president is the head of the Republican Party. He’s never been stronger among Republicans than he is right now. And he’s always had a broad…
HUNT: He’s fallen a little bit back with Republicans in some polls.
BEDINGFIELD: Is that why he spent six months fighting his party on the Epstein files?
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: You guys have been desperate for 10 years to find the moment where Donald Trump is no longer going to be accepted by the — he is the leader of the Republican Party. He is going to continue to be the leader of the Republican Party.
BEDINGFIELD: It used to be the case — it used to be the case that Donald Trump’s wish was their command. And it is the case that, for the last six months, for example, they have bucked him on the Epstein files, to the point where they are now releasing…
JENNINGS: The Clinton files. The Clinton files.
BEDINGFIELD: Yes, because it was Bill Clinton who’s really suffered for the last six months in terms of the shattering of his coalition…
JENNINGS: I’m sorry. I saw the pictures, the Clinton files.
BEDINGFIELD: … and his inability to govern, yes, absolutely, Scott.
HUNT: OK, so let’s — I want to take some time to put the Democrats in the barrel for a minute, because we have now talked about Trump quite a bit. The Democratic Party, Kate, did an autopsy on why they lost in 2024. But they’re not going to release it to the public. How is this not a continuation of all of the reasons why the public doesn’t trust the Democratic Party, thinks that they are…
SELLERS: This is laughable. So why put Democrats in a barrel? Because the facts are, Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the White House.
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: They have an 18 percent approval rating.
HUNT: Well, 18 percent of Americans approve of Democrats in Congress.
SELLERS: Listen, Republicans control the House, the Senate.
HUNT: We’re an equal opportunity — by the way, television show, OK?
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: You guys are down to friends, family, illegals, and health insurance executives. That’s who you got right now. You need an autopsy.
(CROSSTALK)
SELLERS: Do we have the…
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: You’re trying to pay them billions of dollars.
BEDINGFIELD: In all of the Washington swirl around this report, I think let’s look back at — look, post-2016, where there was a similar there was a similar sense of concern. There were multiple reports. There was a congressional investigation into why the Democrats lost in 2016. There was a lot of hand-wringing about it. And the Democrats won in 2020. They ran a competitive primary. I was there on the front row, and they won, and they took back the White House. So the idea that an institutional report that is largely going to be a lot of axe-grinding by individuals who felt angry about different elements of the campaign, the idea that is going to reveal to us something that we don’t know about why the Democrats lost in 2024, I think, is a little silly. And I think, if you look back at 2017 and the way this played out, it didn’t hinder the Democrats’ ability to win in 2020.
SOLTIS ANDERSON: Introspection can be a good thing. It can be a good thing when you lose to sit back and say, let’s really figure out what happened. And there have been times when Republicans have had to go on that journey as well. I think a lot of people sort of remember the Republican autopsy after Mitt Romney after Barack Obama.
BEDINGFIELD: Oh, I was there for that.
SOLTIS ANDERSON: They mostly remember it in terms of this document that said, oh, you have to get more moderate. If you actually read the text of that document, you have to get more moderate on immigration was one of like 50 different things, a lot of which were very tactical and weirdly are things that Donald Trump did. Meet voters where they are, show up places where voters don’t expect you, use digital data effectively. Weirdly, that autopsy gave a lot of interesting road map points that ultimately Donald Trump did use very successfully. So I think avoiding hard truths is not a way for a party to succeed.
HUNT: All right, when we come back: Why are prominent voices in the MAGA coalition turning on each other?
