Scott Jennings is sending video clips to White House staff in bid for job

Conservative Scott Jennings was rumored to be interested in taking over for Karoline Leavitt as the press secretary at the White House, and Politico reported that he's now sending videos of himself to staff in an effort to campaign for the post.

According to Politico's Playbook, Jennings has been defending Trump aide Natalie Harp after comments made by Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) that the president prefers to travel with her. Ossoff later added that the president has a number of staff he uses as a “security blanket to make him feel good about himself.”

Jennings jumped to Harp's defense along with several other White House staff and allies, noting that Harp is "a good person" and "a cancer survivor."

Some Trump's orbit have taken notice that Jennings was on cable news fighting for Harp, the report said. "Others dubbed Jennings’ jockeying as a fairly obvious public audition for a job he’s been eyeing since the transition," Playbook reported, citing those close to the president.

Jennings' videos spread through the White House over the past week, the report claimed, but that was "in part because Jennings sent them to several senior staffers," another person close to the White House told Playbook.

Jennings continues to defend Harp on CNN, where he serves as a conservative commentator.

“I just don’t think that’s what you sign up for when you’re someone like Natalie Harp, who never put her name on a ballot. She’s not the White House press secretary. She’s not a household name, and I just find it to be appalling,” Jennings told Playbook. “Somebody needs to defend her honor.”

But as Democratic strategist Meghan Hays pointed out on CNN Thursday, "clearly, her own team and her own colleagues think this is an issue, or they would not be talking about it."

The White House staff has leaked information about Harp over the past several months, including for the book by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, which described Harp as so obsessed with Trump that both chief of staff Susie Wiles and the Secret Service were nervous about her.

"We wouldn't even know about this for Jon Ossoff to even speak about it, if people inside that building are around in Trump's orbit didn't think she was a problem," said Hayes.

According to reporting by NOTUS on Wednesday, there are close Trump advisors who would prefer a man for the position. The past four press secretaries have been women. They think that it would help end comparisons to Leavitt.

Trump has been open to the idea, but wasn't sold on Jennings. Playbook reported that he spent the past several days calling everyone he knows to ask whether they liked Jennings for the job.