CNN’s Abby Phillip posted a follow-up video with her thoughts on a roundtable discussion on her “NewsNight” show that featured fitness trainer turned MAGA influencer Jillian Michaels, who made some contentious remarks about race and slavery.
Phillip posted a video on her Instagram channel about the discussion on President Donald Trump’s efforts to review some of the materials, exhibits, and cultural performances at the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian Institution that don’t align with his vision of America’s culture and ideals.
The conversation, which featured several panelists, swiftly turned into a discussion about slavery and race when Michaels defended Trump’s initiative to sweep the museums. She insisted that “he’s not whitewashing slavery,” and also maintained that it’s irresponsible to “tie imperialism and racism and slavery just to one race, which is pretty much which every single exhibit does.”
In Philip’s remarks on “The Biggest Loser” TV show alum’s response, the CNN anchor said that Michaels “seemed to try to be minimizing the impact of racism and slavery on American history.”
Phillip also pointed to a statistic Michaels delivered on the show, citing that only 2 percent of white Americans owned enslaved people. However, research shows there was a much higher percentage of people who benefited from or had a direct stake in slave-owning households in the American South.
“That’s an incredibly misleading statistic because even the Americans who did not own slaves also participated in slavery by benefiting from the economic system of slavery, the political system of slavery, and, culturally, treating Black people as if they were not human,” Phillip said.
Phillip’s social media post sharing a clip from the segment drew heavy criticism online, with several viewers bashing the CNN host and accusing her of race-baiting. Some argued that Democrats are the true racists because the Democrat party had ties to the Ku Klux Klan when it first started.
One person went as far as to say, “Sadly, you were not a slave.”
“Sorry…your race card has expired,” another person replied.
However, Phillip received some support in response to the video.
“Why is every inbred MAGA in this comment section just COMPLETELY unaware that there was a party switch in the 60’s?? It’s DOCUMENTED HISTORY: the “Republicans” of that era held positions closer to today’s Democrats.”
Since Michaels’ appearance on the show, she defended her remarks, stating that “there were far more good guys than bad guys” during the period of slavery in the U.S. and that people “can’t pin all of humanity’s evils on one race.”
“Here’s the truth: slavery in the United States was about race. It was about white supremacy. And it was really, really bad,” Phillip said. “Now, Jillian, like many other voters, is entitled to her opinion. She’s just not entitled to her own facts.”
Phillip said that Michaels reached out to the White House to ask which Smithsonian exhibits the Trump administration wanted to dispute. Michaels reported that none of their feedback touched on displays about chattel slavery.
However, Trump recently took to TruthSocial to criticize the exhibits on slavery at the Smithsonian and called for a review of its exhibits.
“The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been — Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future,” Trump wrote on his social media platform.
Earlier this month, the White House sent a letter to Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lonnie Bunch, stating that officials will be conducting a “comprehensive internal review of selected Smithsonian museums and exhibitions.”
“This initiative aims to ensure alignment with the President’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions,” the letter states.
Administration officials will visit eight museums, including the National Museum of African American History and Culture, in their initial review, then move on to the Smithsonian’s other facilities in their subsequent reviews.
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