Politics

Billy Binion | 1.8.2026 12:33 PM

That there are fractures within the conservative movement is not going to come as a shock to those who follow politics closely, particularly over the last few months. The response to Republican activist Charlie Kirk's September murder and a much-condemned October video by the Heritage Foundation's Kevin Roberts both shoved a question to the fore: What, exactly, does it mean to be a conservative?

In isolation, the debate concerns whether to exclude people on the far fringes: Holocaust deniers and conspiracists. That same question, though, has lingered over the conservative movement in a much broader way for the last decade as it tries to decide what it is under President Donald Trump, and what it will be when he is gone.

Which is, in some sense, why I wanted to interview CNN's Scott Jennings. The Republican pundit's profile ballooned during the 2024 presidential election, known for his viral exchanges with liberal-leaning panels in which he says he tries to give the average MAGA believer a fair shake. He has, to many, become a face and voice of the movement. But Jennings began in a very different place: a political operative in George W. Bush's presidential administration who cites Sen. Mitch McConnell (R–Ky.) as one of his most influential mentors. He's a good example of the old guard meeting the new guard, wrapped up in one........

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