Van Jones to Scott Jennings Mentioning Transgender Mice: ‘That’s Not Even Real!’

AXELROD: “One thing we should note is that Elon Musk got a huge ovation at the State of the Union, but when he got in the room with those members of Congress yesterday, it was apparently much less effusive because they’re worried. The fact is, that waste — if you ask Americans, should we eliminate waste, fraud and abuse from the government, you’ll get a lot of response for that. If you start defining waste, fraud and abuse as things that they value and workers that are essential, they’re going to have a much different view. So, the initial blush of Musk with his chainsaw may have had some resonance. The fact that he’s cutting down stuff indiscriminately, less so.”

JENNINGS: “Well, it’s not only indiscriminate. I mean, we don’t really need the transgender mice, do we?”

Jones: “That’s not even real!”

JENNINGS: “It is real, I’m sorry.”

Jones: “No, no, it’s not. No, listen —“

JENNINGS: “Is it real or not?”

Jones: “Hold on a second.”

JENNINGS: “Did we — did we have to — did we have to say it was real or not? It’s real.”

LINSKEY: “I mean, Musk has a shield.”

JENNINGS: “It’s a real thing. Look, my point is —“

Jones: “Listen, they weren’t talking about transgender —“

JENNINGS: “Don’t defend the mice. (laughs)”

Jones: “No, no — listen. You don’t want to talk about it? We don’t have to talk about it. But it wasn’t transgender. It was a different term that was misinterpreted as transgender. They were actually trying, doing basic medical experiment on mice to figure out —“

AXELROD: “Don’t spoil a good troll.”

Jones: “This is not true!”

AXELROD: “Jennings is having a good troll, don’t spoil it.”

JENNINGS: “Here’s the point. They have found some things.”

Jones: “Yes.”

JENNINGS: “And the greatest public relations advice I could give them is this. You found stuff, you’re going to find more stuff. And there’s going to come a point where you could take this to the Congress and have a really good hearing and a really good public display. That is the next — that is the next iteration.”

HUNT: “For the record, this is not a new thing.”