CNN’s Scott Jennings had a fiery back-and-forth with a Washington Post columnist who believes Elon Musk did a Nazi salute during Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Jennings, the lone conservative panelist on CNN’S NewsNight with Abby Phillip, defended Musk’s gesture, which the SpaceX boss has said was done to convey the sentiment of ‘my heart goes out to you.’

‘We’ve moved on from Trump derangement syndrome to Elon derangement syndrome,’ Jennings said on Monday. 

‘Anybody who is asserting this thing he did on the stage the other day was a Sieg Heil, which I just heard you say, you know, lawyer up maybe because, absolute[ly] ridiculous thing to say.’

But WaPo journalist Catherine Rampell, who is Jewish, was not having Jennings’ explanations about what she called a Nazi salute – and she dared Jennings to repeat the gesture if he was so sure it was an innocent one. 

‘Why don’t you do it on TV right now? Why don’t you do it on TV right now if you think it’s so, so banal,’ Rampell fired back at Jennings. 

Jennings was uncharacteristically quiet for a moment before he said, ‘This salute trutherism is outrageous….. This is the biggest conspiracy theory.’

Rampell then dared him to do the gesture a second time, adding: ‘Do it right now on TV. If you think it’s normal, if you think it’s a normal way to greet people, do it right now on TV! Why won’t you?’

Scott Jennings had a fiery back-and-forth with Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell

Elon Musk's gesture at the inauguration has been seen as a Nazi salute by some and a 'my heart goes out to you' moment by others

Elon Musk’s gesture at the inauguration has been seen as a Nazi salute by some and a ‘my heart goes out to you’ moment by others 

NEW: Journalist Catherine Rampell has a meltdown after Scott Jennings tells her to lawyer up after she suggested Elon Musk is aligning himself with Nazis.

CNN is now directly accusing Elon Musk of doing a Nazi salute at Trump’s rally.

Rampell was morally outraged over Musk’s… pic.twitter.com/UBazomGwJJ

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 28, 2025

She had previously explained what she said was Musk’s history of anti-Jewish statements and dog whistles to white supremacists. 

‘The first time that Elon Musk decides to declare that globalist Jews are responsible for the great replacement of brown people into the United States, maybe it was a misunderstanding, you know,’ Rampell said. 

‘The second time he said that Jews are pushing hatred against white people – that’s a quote – that was a little iffy. By the second Sieg Heil, I think he kind of loses the benefit of the doubt to not be accused of playing footsies with these Nazis. 

‘I’m not saying he’s a Nazi, I’m saying the Nazis think he’s a Nazi.’

Musk has been defended by the Anti-Defamation League, as well as Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

Netanyahu said Musk has been ‘falsely smeared’ over his straight-arm gesture earlier this week and thanked him for being a ‘great friend of Israel.’

The PM further praised Musk for visiting Israel after Hamas’ October 7 attack and allegedly supporting the country’s ‘right to defend itself against genocidal terrorists and regimes.’

Musk has come under fire over a gesture he made during a rally in Washington on Inauguration Day, in which he thanked Donald Trump’s supporters for helping secure the President return to the White House.

He then slapped his hand on his chest and extended his arm straight outward and upward with his palm facing downwards.

Netanyahu’s response comes after left-wing activists beamed a massive image of Musk’s infamous raised-arm salute and the word ‘Heil’ on to Tesla’s Berlin car factory.

I giant image of Elon Musk doing a gesture people have likened to a Nazi salute alongside the word 'heil' was projected onto Tesla's Berlin factory last night

I giant image of Elon Musk doing a gesture people have likened to a Nazi salute alongside the word ‘heil’ was projected onto Tesla’s Berlin factory last night 

Netanyahu says Musk has been 'falsely smeared' over his straight-arm gesture earlier this week and further thanked him for being a 'great friend of Israel'. The pair are pictured together in November 2023

Netanyahu says Musk has been ‘falsely smeared’ over his straight-arm gesture earlier this week and further thanked him for being a ‘great friend of Israel’. The pair are pictured together in November 2023

A video showing Musk’s tweets in support of Germany’s far-right Alternative Fur Deutschland party were also displayed on the nine-meter-tall factory.

Musk has taken to X to slam his critics, alleging that the ‘radical leftists are really upset that they had to take time out of their busy day praising Hamas to call me a Nazi’.

Netanyahu replied to the tweet Thursday morning, thanking the SpaceX CEO for his support for the nation.

‘Elon is a great friend of Israel,’ the Prime Minister wrote. ‘He visited Israel after the October 7 massacre in which Hamas terrorists committed the worst atrocity against the Jewish people since the Holocaust.

‘He has since repeatedly and forcefully supported Israel’s right to defend itself against genocidal terrorists and regimes who seek to annihilate the one and only Jewish state. I thank him for this.’

Musk then shared Netanyahu’s post adding: ‘thank you.’

The billionaire continued his social media crusade by retweeting footage of French President Emmanuel Macron raising his right arm with palm outstretched during a speech.

The post questioned whether Macron would ‘resign after giving a Nazi salute or is this just the way people engage large crowds when they are excited?’

‘It was astonishing how insanely hard legacy media tried to cancel me for saying ‘my heart goes out to you’ and moving my hand from my heart to the audience,’ Musk commented on the post.

‘In the end, this deception will just be another nail in the coffin of legacy media.’

And Musk did little to quell concerns about his outlook on authoritarianism when, this week, he backed Germany’s radical right-wing AfD party at its latest rally, telling attendees that there’s too much ‘guilt’ over the ‘sins’ of their ‘great grandparents’.

The billionaire made a surprise appearance during the AfD’s (Alternative fuer Deutschland) election campaign event in Halle in eastern Germany on Saturday, voicing his support for the second time in as many weeks.

‘It’s good to be proud of German culture, German values, and not to lose that in some sort of multiculturalism that dilutes everything,’ Musk, via video link, told the hall of 4,500 people alongside party leader Alice Weidel.



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