CNN conservative commentator Scott Jennings, who has long been reported "thirsty" for a job working with Washington Republicans, was publicly taunted on Friday after President Donald Trump passed him over for the role of White House press secretary.

"Sorry you lost your race too, @ScottJenningsKY," Michigan State Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in Michigan earlier this year, wrote on X on Friday.

The White House instead chose Katherine Zacharia, described by Reuters as "a communications adviser for President Donald Trump's Truth Social platform." Her selection, the outlet reported, "would put Zacharia at the center of the White House's public messaging operation in the final before the elections, when Trump's agenda and his party's control of Congress will be put before voters." The press secretary post is among the most visible jobs in any administration, with its holder serving as the president's chief spokesperson and regularly fielding questions from the White House press corps.

Reuters noted that Trump's approval rating has fallen to 32 percent — the lowest of his political career — as his fellow Republicans sour on his handling of the cost of living and the Iran war, according to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll.

"The of Zacharia underscores the close ties between Trump's administration and his broader political and media operation," Reuters added, noting that the announcement came after Trump Media disclosed in July that, for a fee, it would give banks and trading firms "the fastest" access to posts from influential Truth Social accounts, including the president's, whose posts often move global markets.

For Jennings, the news offered little comfort at the end of a month in which he has endured more than his fair share of public embarrassments. Earlier in October, he drew controversy for warning Trump that if Democrats win control of Congress in the 2026 midterm elections, it would be bad for the country because they would simply investigate him.

"My other advice is that all of these arrangements, whether it's this one or anything else, you really, really have to dot all your I's, cross all your T's and anticipate that every single bit of this is going to be investigated, should you lose control of either chamber," Jennings said, continuing: "And you have to be ready to be fully transparent about that when that day comes."

Jennings also came under fire for blaming Trump's economic problems on his predecessor, former President Joe Biden.

"His main problem is cost of living and most of the cost-of-living problems that we're dealing with in the country, he inherited," Jennings argued. "We still have a little bit of inflation, but it's largely normalized now. But most of the cost of living, he inherited it."

He added: "… Certainly to a lot of Americans, you know, when prices spike the way they did during Biden, even going up 2 percent or 3 percent over the last two years, it feels like tacking on even more problems to their lives."

Source: Alternet