CNN invited their regular conservative commentator to discuss Kamala Harris’ waning poll numbers with male voters, and he took the opportunity for a random (if unsurprising) transphobic tangent. The network is once again forcing everyone to wonder why this man is still employed.

Scott Jennings, a longtime Republican strategist, has been a regular CNN contributor since 2017. These days, his job mainly consists of embodying the Trumpist perspective, which necessarily involves some of the most tone-deaf takes ever uttered on-air. On Sunday’s “State of the Union” panel, he treated the audience to one especially absurd example.

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During a segment in which the panel discussed a New York Times survey claiming that only 40% of registered male voters support Harris, Jennings blamed the Democrats’ general support of trans rights, particularly pointing to the lack of support from Black men. “I think what they are finally coming to realize is that a lot of men think Democrats care more about dudes who want to become women than dudes who just want to be dudes,” Jennings said.

As other panelists tried to cut him off, Jennings carried on with a jab at Tim Walz‘s expense during a hunting-themed media segment. “No hunting cosplay or cringey video is going to change it, the bed is made,” he said.

The argument is its own rebuttal. Like the Republican party at large, Jennings is bringing up trans people completely unprompted in order to complain that Democrats are always bringing up trans people.

The more important question is: what does this man add to the panel? Media Matters journalist Ari Drennen pointed out that if the network is going to keep bringing up the trans community, a trans voice might make a little more sense.

“It would be nice if CNN bothered to bring trans people on to counter stuff like this,” Drennen said. “It’s not responsible journalism to demonize one tiny group of people endlessly without giving them a voice of their own.”

Not only did Jennings go out on a random limb to make anti-trans comments, he did so in order to project what he imagines Black male voters care about.

Putting aside the obvious fact that Republicans are far more obsessed with trans people than Democrats—to the point of advancing hundreds of anti-trans bills over those that could positively impact their constituents lives—there’s no reason to believe Democrats are losing voters over trans rights. Republicans drastically underperformed in the midterm elections, despite making transphobia a huge part of their platform.

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