During a heated discussion on transgender individuals serving in the military this week, The Atlantic contributing writer Jemele Hill made a comparison between Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement and transgender Americans.
This comes after the Supreme Court on Tuesday sided with the Trump administration in lifting a lower court order that paused the Pentagon’s transgender military ban from taking effect.
Trump officials have argued that the transgender military policy “furthers the government’s important interests in military readiness, unit cohesion, good order and discipline, and avoiding disproportionate costs.”
On Tuesday during “CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip,” a roundtable conversation and debate occurred about the decision.
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The conversation shifted to race when Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky said, “What if the president wakes up tomorrow and says, ‘I don’t want any Black people in the military?'”
Conservative guests on the panel interrupted to say such a notion was “ridiculous.”
Host Abby Phillip asked conservative CNN commentator Scott Jennings if there is a difference between banning Black and Latino individuals in the military and banning transgender people.
Jennings hit back, “Are you really going to go down this ridiculous road?… This is a ridiculous argument.”
Republican strategist Shermichael Singleton also said on the hypothetical question, “I personally think there is a difference, and I am just going to leave it at that.”
Jennings continued to push back on the claim that there is a comparison between the two.
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Hill chimed into the conversation, expanding on the comparison of race and being transgender.
“It’s bathrooms today, it’s sports tomorrow, it’s the military today,” she said.
Jennings quickly responded, “It’s also sports today, by the way… 80% of Americans agree, by the way.”
“The majority sometimes is wrong,” Hill said. “The majority used to believe that Dr. MLK Jr. was somebody who was a threat and somebody who was not a good American. The majority of people used to be against civil rights. Were they right? No, they weren’t.”
Hill went on to say that by “targeting one group…that line moves to everybody else.”
Hill clarified she wasn’t arguing that “Trump is coming for Black people tomorrow.” She said the Trump administration is using “DEI as code word for Black people already when it comes to the military.”
“Suddenly, when you don’t protect the most vulnerable you wind up making it worse for everybody else that is in the marginalized community,” she said.
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Hill said to Jennings, “You don’t think trans people are vulnerable in this country?”
Jennings responded, “So is it your position that the commander-in-chief should recruit people who you are describing as vulnerable into the lethal fighting force?”
Hill responded, “No, he should recruit people who want to serve and protect this country, and it is really kind of ironic considering he dodged the draft that he suddenly has an opinion about who can serve.”
Fox News’ Haley Chi-Sing, and Breanne Deppisch contributed to this report
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