CNN panelists Scott Jennings and Batya Ungar-Sargon defended President Donald Trump on Tuesday after Trump argued on social media that American museums are putting too much emphasis on “how bad Slavery was.”
Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform Tuesday that museums such as the Smithsonian Institution, “where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been,” are too “WOKE.”
Before debating the matter on CNN’s “NewsNight,” host Abby Phillip noted that partisan echo chambers can muddle complicated discussions. She said on this particular topic, however, “it’s important to say objectively, slavery was indeed bad.”
“It was evil,” Phillip continued. “The nation’s original sin.”
Jennings, a conservative commentator and ex-staffer for former President George W. Bush, was quick to agree. He said slavery “was a reprehensible institution,” but then offered an arguably generous interpretation of Trump’s remarks.
“I agree with your words, that it was our original sin,” the pundit told Phillip. “We also fought a war to eradicate it and to get over it as a country. And that was a necessary thing that happened and a lot of people died, and we did eradicate it — and that’s a good thing.
“I think what he’s asking is, in our museums, what defines us?” Jennings continued. “Are we going to be defined by ... the worst mistake we ever made, or are we going to be defined by what we’ve done moving forward to get over it?”
He also argued, “there is an effort by some” to continue focusing only on the former.
“My belief is that he wants to look at these museums, not because he wants to do away with the idea that slavery occurred, but that he wants to ask a very simple question: ‘Are we going to present ourselves as being exceptional or not?’” Jennings said.
Ungar-Sargon, a journalist and author who identifies as a “MAGA Lefty,” also lauded Phillip’s remarks before arguing that white progressives started “obsessing over race” in the 2010s, however, and that this has led to the kind of sentiment Trump displayed Tuesday.
“So, for example, in 2010, the words ‘white supremacy’ were mentioned [fewer than] 75 times in The Washington Post and The New York Times,” Ungar-Sargon told Phillip, adding that the latter paper went on to use the phrase 700 times in 2020.
When Phillip asked what’s wrong with discussing racism, Ungar-Sargon argued that the subject doesn’t accurately represent the thoughts of everyday Americans — and claimed race is part of a “newfound obsession” that was “driven by the media.”
Trump declared Tuesday that he plans to drive that discourse himself, however, and decried America’s museums for supposedly exhibiting “Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future” before announcing his potential next steps.
He wrote, “We are not going to allow this to happen, and I have instructed my attorneys to go through the Museums, and start the exact same process that has been done with Colleges and Universities where tremendous progress has been made.”