'Weak sauce!' CNN panelists trade jabs over Kamala Harris' key interview decision

Two CNN panelists sparred Tuesday night after a Republican strategist called Kamala Harris' decision "weak sauce" to interview on the network with running mate Tim Walz by her side.

Scott Jennings, who was a special assistant to former President George W. Bush, told anchor Anderson Cooper he felt it was "incredibly weak."

"Weak sauce to show up with your running mate," he said. "The fact that they don't have enough confidence in her to let her sit herself — the actual top of the ticket — and do a single interview ... "

Jennings then switched gears and said he believes that the last month of "hand-wringing" and "gyrations" over the interview showed Democrats' "troubling lack of confidence in her ability."

ALSO READ: Rudy Giuliani finds a new low: platforming a Nazi

The Republican continued laying into the vice president, questioning what kind of president she'd be after the "small-time decision."

"What does that look like for your decision-making process and so on?" Jennings questioned. "So yes I think Republicans will think it's pretty weak to show up with effectively someone to take half the time."

Jennings' perhaps deliberately fiery remarks earned an equal and opposite response from Democratic strategist Maria Cardona, who called her counterpart's assertions "incredibly weak" and "just not true."

"Republicans are going to continue to try to throw things at her because nothing has stuck," she fired back.

Cardona insisted Harris has done interviews on her own as vice president, and has been the nominee for just over a month.

"This compressed time frame, I think her doing an interview alongside her vice presidential nominee is going to give voters a chance that they want, I believe, to not just listen to her, but to listen to the vice presidential nominee," said Cardona, adding she believes Thursday's interview will be a "great forum" for Harris and Walz.

Cardona said she expects the duo to outline their case to middle- and working-class voters.

"Everything that they do is going to be fighting for them and in contrast to somebody like Donald Trump, who has never done anything in his life that is not self-serving or for himself," she said.

Watch the clip below or at this link.