On Wednesday’s CNN This Morning, host Audie Cornish and her panel managed to recast enforcement of federal civil rights legislation beneath Donald Trump as “imposing ideology,” whereas a Democratic guide insisted that DEI “was by no means an issue” till Trump took workplace.
The phase opened with archival footage of Jesse Jackson defending boycotts, together with the current effort to intimidate Goal after the retailer scaled again “variety, fairness, and inclusion” initiatives following Trump’s reelection. Cornish famous that Goal’s CEO has acknowledged monetary results from the leftist boycott.
The extra revealing second got here later, throughout dialogue of Trump’s State of the Union vow to finish DEI insurance policies throughout the federal authorities and, not directly, the personal sector.
On “CNN This Morning,” anchor Audie Cornish claimed beneath Trump, “the precise authorities now’s concerned in imposing a special ideology” on race. Democrat Antjuan Seawright lamented “DEI was by no means an issue till Trump grew to become President of the USA.” pic.twitter.com/w7c8O0f0YJ
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) February 18, 2026
After airing remarks from present Equal Employment Alternative Fee Chair Andrea Lucas defending equal safety rules, Cornish framed the problem this manner:
“What it means is the precise authorities now’s concerned in imposing a special ideology, so to talk.”
No. It means the federal authorities is imposing the legislation. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the premise of race. For many years, debates over affirmative motion and race-conscious hiring have centered on whether or not sure DEI-style practices cross that authorized line. That argument didn’t start in 2016 — a lot much less in 2025. Some would begin with the Supreme Courtroom ruling in Regents of the College of California v. Bakke in 1978.
But Democratic guide Antjuan Seawright went additional, claiming:
“DEI was by no means an issue till Trump grew to become President of the USA.”
Actually? California voters banned affirmative motion at public establishments in 1996. And simply final yr — throughout Joe Biden’s presidency — the Courtroom dominated in opposition to race-conscious admissions in College students for Truthful Admissions v. Harvard.
On CNN, nevertheless, longstanding constitutional and authorized disputes are recast as sudden culture-war innovations.
Seawright additionally advised that scaling again DEI resurrects an previous injustice, invoking “this concept that black people ought to at all times be on the menu and by no means on the desk.” Opposing DEI makes you a cannibal? The metaphor implies that retreating from race-conscious company insurance policies quantities to a return to exclusion.
Terry Schilling, government director of the American Ideas Venture, provided the clearest counterargument: civil rights legislation was designed to “tear down” racial obstacles, not substitute one type of racial desire with one other.
For CNN, insisting that People be judged with out regard to race is now the intolerably ideological place.
