CNN’s Scott Jennings took a victory lap over Paul Begala on Wednesday after the pair brawled over the Pentagon’s spending on steak and lobster for American service members.
Begala misled viewers about reports that the Department of Defense spent approximately $22 million on lobster tail and ribeye steak last September during a debate on Wednesday’s evening’s edition of The Source With Kaitlan Collins, suggesting that it had all been for Hegseth and other members of DoD leadership:
BEGALA: You know what’s important? He [Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth] has spent 15 million dollars in one month for ribeye steak, 6.9 million for lobster tail, 225 million dollars for furniture. He spent more in the month of September than most countries on Earth spent in their defense. All for himself! Lobster tails!? While our troops are eating MREs!? Lobster tails!?
JENNINGS: Do you believe the secretary of defense is personally eating all the lobster? It’s for the troops!
BEGALA: Oh really? The troops are getting lobster!?
JENNINGS: Frequently in theater! Troops who are going to war.
BEGALA: Oh my God!
JENNINGS: You know that!
BEGALA: They’re getting lobster, you are so full of it!
JENNINGS: You’re gonna get killed over this, you’re gonna get killed over this. Internet, do something!
BEGALA: They get the gold mine, we get the shaft!
The eponymous anchor declined to inform Begala that he was misinformed, but the internet did grant Jennings’s request.
Even before Wednesday night’s throwdown, New York Times columnist and frequent Trump critic David French had debunked Begala’s claim.
“When I was in Iraq serving at a very remote FOB not far from the Iranian border, we had steak and crab legs almost every Sunday. It was the military’s version of a thank you meal, and it was very appreciated,” noted French. “There are lots of things to be outraged at, but feeding our deployed troops well is not one of them.”
“Ask and ye shall receive,” mused Jennings while celebrating his vindication.
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