CNN panel defends Bill Clinton's appearance at DNC, saying they 'believe in redemption'

Former President Bill Clinton spoke at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) on Tuesday and condemned President Donald Trump’s actions in the Oval Office, without acknowledging his own.

When the DNC was heavily criticized by Republicans on Twitter who brought up Clinton’s past sexual relations with a White House intern and his connection to Jeffrey Epstein, CNN defended Clinton’s appearance on a panel.

Former White House official Scott Jennings spoke to Jennifer Granholm and Van Jones and questioned why the former President has yet to be cancelled, even though he has been proven to violate rules in the past and currently has serious allegations against him.

“I am dumbfounded by this. How is it that Bill Clinton has not been canceled by the Democratic—how has he survived all of these waves of cancellations when he has been one of the biggest violators of these rules all these years?” asked Jennings.

“We believe in redemption, brother,” Jones responded.

“We talked about the use of character to try to say, ‘Donald Trump is a man of lower character [than] Joe Biden’ … he’s fair game. That’s totally fine,” Jennings said. “So you’re gonna say that in one breath and then say, ‘Character matters. Ladies and gentlemen, Bill Clinton!’ I mean, does this make sense to anyone? If you want Republicans to vote for Joe Biden, having Bill Clinton talk about character and not having drama in the Oval Office—is that the right answer?”

Jones added that Clinton “acknowledged his wrongdoing” and “apologized.”

“I don’t think we have to say everything that Bill Clinton has done is great, but I do think that when he has made mistakes, he’s acknowledged them, and I admire him for that,” Jones added.

During his speech, Clinton also criticized President Trump’s response to the pandemic.

“We have just 4 percent of the world’s population, [but] 25 percent of the world’s COVID cases,” He said.

“Our unemployment rate is more than twice as high as South Korea’s, two and a half times the United Kingdom’s, more than three times Japan’s,” Clinton added. “Donald Trump says we’re leading the world. Well, we are the only major industrial economy to have its unemployment rate tripled.”

Fox News’ Chris Wallace called Clinton’s speech a “cogent argument.”

“It was only five minutes. As I say, it was pre-taped. But I thought he made a more cogent argument about how Donald Trump has mishandled the coronavirus than any I’ve heard from anybody,” the news anchor said.

Donald Trump Jr. also tweeted about the speech saying, “The irony of Bill Clinton talking about the sanctity of the Oval Office should not be lost on anyone!”