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As the smoke clears over a long and grueling 2024 election, people are naturally reflecting and taking stock of the result. Opinions are going to fly, but I think if anyone summed up the results the best so far, I’d have to give that to CNN contributor Scott Jennings. 

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Last night, Jennings sat on a panel with dumbfounded CNN talking heads who, judging by all the other clips, couldn’t seem to wrap their heads around how Donald Trump, a man they convinced themselves was the epitome of evil and corruption, could have won the election. Jennings sat and thoughtfully explained it all masterfully as the rest of his panelists sat in silence, listening. 

He began by calling this a “mandate,” saying Trump won the national popular vote, and now he has to do what he said he was going to, including getting the economy back up and running, fixing the border, reducing crime, and creating a strong foreign policy. 

But then Jennings dropped what is probably the greatest explanation of Trump’s win I’ve heard, and likely will hear. 

Jennings described the win as the “revenge” of the regular, anonymous American who “has been crushed, insulted, condescended to.” 

“They’re not garbage, they’re not Nazis, they’re just regular people who get up and go to work every day, and try to make a better life for their kids, and they feel like they’ve just been told to shut up when they have complained about the things that have been hurting them in their own lives,” he continued.  

Next, Jennings came down on his own industry and, without saying it, the people he was currently surrounded by. 

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“I also feel like this election — as we sit here and pour over this tonight — is something of an indictment of the political information complex,” said Jennings. “And the story that was portrayed was not true. We were told Puerto Rico was going to change the election. Liz Cheney, Nikki Haley voters, women lying to their husbands, before that, it was Tim Walz and the camo hats.” 

“Night after night after night, we were told all these things, and gimmicks,” he continued, “were gonna somehow push Harris over the line, and we were ignoring the fundamentals. Inflation, people feeling they were barely able to tread water at best, that was the fundamentals of the election.” 

“And so, I think both parties should always look at the results of the election, and figure out what went right and what went wrong,” said Jennings. “But I think for all of us who cover elections, and talk about elections, to do this on a day-to-day basis, we have to figure out how to understand, talk to, and listen to the half of the country that rose up tonight and said ‘we’ve had enough.'”

While I’m sure many people could point to a myriad of reasons as to why the Democrats lost this election, Jennings probably hit on the most important points. The media failed to see the forest for the trees, and because they were hyper-focused on details that they told themselves mattered, they missed the real concerns of the people. So caught up was the left and its media in being the party of “not Trump,” that they didn’t hear the people’s concerns… nor did they want to hear them. 

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As Jennings said, whenever they were voiced, they were told to shut up and accused of social sins. 

Ultimately, this was a rebuke, and a powerful one at that. If anyone at CNN is capable of hearing Jennings, they’ll learn some valuable lessons here. However, Jennings’ words will likely fall on deaf ears. Many on the left will attempt to rationalize this in ways that keep the finger from pointing at them. 

Which is sad, as this is probably one of the greatest teachable moments in history, and the leftist complex shouldn’t allow it to pass by if it ever wants to stay relevant again.