Things have escalated into a war of words between CNN personality Abby Phillip and former “Biggest Loser” trainer Jillian Michaels, now a conservative political commentator, over comments that Michaels made about slavery in American and Phillip’s mischaracterization of them, with Michaels accusing the CNN personality of lying.
As background, the spat began on August 13, when Micahels got into an argument during an appearance on a “NewsNight” panel on which she sat alongside Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky, Democratic congressman Rep. Ritchie Torres, CNN media analyst Sara Fischer, and conservative Scott Jennings.
Namely, Michaels argued with Roginsky that “you cannot tie imperialism and racism and slavery to just one race, which is pretty much what every single exhibit does.” And, when Torrest opined that “slavery in America was White supremacy,” Michaels fired back, “Do you know that only less than 2% of White Americans owned slaves? Did you know that slavery is thousands of years old?”
At issue was a post that President Trump had made on Truth Social, in which he said, “The Museums throughout Washington, but all over the Country are, essentially, the last remaining segment of ‘WOKE.’ 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. We are not going to allow this to happen.”
About a week later, on August 19, Abby Phillip, who is the host of “NewsNight,” attacked Michaels for her comments, snapping, “Last week, on this show, a guest shocked the table by arguing – in part – that slavery can’t just be blamed on one race and that museums put too much focus on the role of White people who participated in that terrible institution.”
Continuing, Phillip snapped, “What we try to do on this program is create a platform for discussion and debate. Debate that reflects the very real differences that exist in this country. It’s what echochambers in our society fail to do, frankly. But on this topic, it’s important to say, objectively, slavery was indeed bad. It was evil, the nation’s original sin.”
Speaking to Fox News Digital, Michaels accused the CNN personality of being a liar who was totally mischaracterizing what she had said. She told the outlet, “If I could tell you literally the lies that Abby Phillip and CNN and the Huffington Post have perpetuated after that interview, it’s staggering how they’ve mischaracterized and manipulated and lied about everything.”
"*" indicates required fields
Further, Michaels explained that she was quite clear in not “trying to relitigate who benefited from slavery in America,” as Phillip claimed she had done, but rather was just explaining the real history of slavery in America and the world. She said, emphasizing that real history, “Slavery and imperialism and racism have been practiced by every single human race, and everybody of every skin color throughout history has worn both the chains and the whip, and I think if we don’t start talking about this, it’s going to tear apart the fabric of our society.”
She also noted that the fake history of the sort Phillip is pushing is what is being used to indoctrinate young people, saying, “This ultra-woke narrative that tells only one side of history and that paints an entire, just one, race, with all the evils of slavery, imperialism, racism – this younger generation is choking on [it], and they’re vomiting it back up.”
And, refusing to back down, Michaels told Fox News Digital, “I will sign up for any difficult conversation. I want to have it. I embrace it. I think it’s necessary, but when you see people attack your family, your kids, your spouse, your parents, the people that you work with, and their livelihoods get threatened, you can see why people are afraid to say anything.”
Watch the spat on CNN here: