‘So You Have No Actual Specifics!’ Nikole Hannah-Jones Grills CNN’s Scott Jennings Over Trump ‘Woke’ Complaint
New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winner Nikole Hannah-Jones confronted CNN analyst and potential Trump spox Scott Jennings over the “specifics” of President-elect Donald Trump’s complaints about a “woke” military.
Trump’s victory last week came after years of campaigning against what conservatives call “wokeness” — a campaign that included promising to fire “woke” generals. That’s a promise that Trump made months ago during an interview with a panel of Fox News hosts that included Pete Hegseth, who has now been tapped as Trump’s secretary of defense:
REPORTER: Are you going to fire those generals? The woke generals at the top? Because Pete’s been talking about it.
TRUMP: Yes, I would get rid of them. Yes, I would fire them. You can’t have woke military. You said it’s so great. You know, you have — you need people that want to win. They want to win wars. That’s what their purpose is, to win wars, not to be woke.
On Tuesday night’s edition of CNN NewsNight, anchor Abby Phillip led a panel discussion interrogating the “woke military” complaint that included an exchange between Hannah-Jones, Jennings, and CNN analyst Cari Champion.
Phillip, Hannah-Jones, and Champion demanded specifics and evidence of the harms of creeping “wokeness” — and found his response lacking:
CHAMPION: But I don’t understand what you mean by woke. You’re talking about racial integration, and I think that makes sense, but is that what you define woke as? I’m curious.
BERNSTEIN: I was referring to the criticism of general ability.
CHAMPION: I know, I was referring to what [Jennings] said.
JENNINGS: I think what President Trump and what a lot of Republicans are fearful of is that the core mission of the military to fight wars and to defend the country sometimes takes a back seat to trying to overlay social and cultural programming into the military that is commonly found at universities, commonly found in corporate America.
PHILLIP: Where’s the evidence though? That’s the question that I have.
JENNINGS: And maybe it’s fine for that. But that’s what he resists in the federal bureaucracy, specifically in the military.
(CROSSTALK)
CHAMPION: Is there some truth that he just wants to control it for himself so he can use it as he pleases? I mean, we’re using that term as woke for his self.
What are the woke policies that are used?
BERNSTEIN: That’s the question.
CHAMPION: Are you referring to DEI?
JENNINGS: Yes, I would say he would specifically name DEI.
HANNAH-JONES: And how does that harm —
CHAMPION: How is that harmful?
HANNAH-JONES: — the military prowess? Name something specific? JENNINGS: I think he would probably say — I mean I don’t speak for him, but I think he would probably say that any policy that doesn’t prioritize getting the military into a position to fight wars and defend America, anything else that’s ancillary to that —
CHAMPION: What does it mean I have to deal do with that —
JENNINGS: — but may be detrimental to that should be set aside. That’s what he believes.
HANNAH-JONES: So, you have no actual specifics on this!
PHILLIP: T.W., I know you want to get in.
Watch above via CNN NewsNight.