A panel of CNN guests clashed on Tuesday night over the definition of "woke" and how it relates to America's military in light of reporting from The Wall Street Journal that Trump's first executive order could be a military purge.
GOP strategist Scott Jennings went toe-to-toe with fellow guest and TV host Cari Champion as well as New York Times staff writer Nikole Hannah-Jones, with Jennings asserting that the military has taken on "all of the worst properties of corporate America" gotten away from its core mission: fighting and winning wars. When host Abby Phillip asked what properties, Jennings pointed to "all of the [human resources] properties that have divided this country the past several years."
"These soldiers are not cultural guinea pigs — they're soldiers," he said, adding he believes there's some "utility" in the president reviewing the people at the top of the military.
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In response, Hannah-Jones pointed out that the military has "long been woke" — it was the first American institution to integrate and one of the first places to have integrated housing and integrated schools on bases.
"The idea there's something wrong with being 'woke' when in fact that what that means is the military is trying to reflect a multi-racial country that has a lot of different types of people who have to come together and learn how to work together in the national defense, actually racial polarization is bad for military strength," she said.
She called the notion that "woke" can be "purged" from the military "a-historic."
Champion later jumped into the discussion and asked Jennings specifically what he means by "woke," to which Jennings said the president-elect and other members of his coming administration fear the military's mission has taken a "backseat" to "overlay social cultural programming into the military."
The panel pushed back, however, and asked what evidence he had to back up the claim.
"Are you referring to D.E.I.?" pressed Champion, referring to diversity, equity and inclusion policies, which Jennings affirmed.
"How is that harmful?" Champion continued. Jennings replied that Trump likely is targeting any policies that are "ancillary" or "detrimental" to the mission.
Later in the segment, Champion and Jennings butted heads again as Champion defended Hannah-Jones' comment that "anti-woke" is the same as saying "anti-Black."
"It does sound as if it is about a group of people that you do not want in your party, with your workforce —" she said.
But Jennings interjected, "Did you see the election results? We just put the biggest multi-racial coalition together in the history of the Republican Party!"
Champion wasn't convinced.
"When you say 'anti-woke,' when you say, 'woke,' do you think about a certain class of people?" she asked.
Jennings said he meant "hyper-liberal people who have a fundamental disregard for the underpinnings of the founding of our country and that want to fundamentally change our society in ways that are not in line with the vast majority of American citizens."
Hannah-Jones chimed in again, asking for examples. He again didn't give specific examples.
Watch the full clip below or at this link.