CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip, more colloquially known as “The Thunderdome”, continues to solidify itself as a petri dish of liberal derangement. Case in point: Thursday night’s broadcast kicked off with a debate on “weaponization” that culminated with liberal panelists (including, of course, host Abby Phillip) seeming to deny that institutional campus antisemitism exists.
Watch the exchange in its entirety, as aired on CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip on Thursday, April 17th, 2025 (Click “expand” to view transcript):
ABBY PHILLIP: Trump is openly signing executive orders saying, “…investigate this person, take away this tax-exempt status because I don’t like this entity.” How is that not weaponization, Scott?
SCOTT JENNINGS: Well, I totally disagree with the characterization of it. I think Trump supporters and the people who put him in office would say that he’s not turning the government into a weapon. He’s turning it into a shield. He’s shielding the American people from illegal immigration. He’s shielding the American people from having their tax dollars used for ridiculous purposes. All of these things that you mentioned, you may call them weaponization, but a lot of people would say, we need a shield against a lot of these bad actors and bad institutions.
PHILLIP: But you didn’t address any of the things that I actually did bring up. I mean, he’s saying to American universities you need to admit…
JENNINGS: Yeah. I’ll address it.
PHILLIP: …a certain number of conservatives. Yeah. Okay.
JENNINGS: Yeah, I’ll address the universities.
PHILLIP: Or you’ll lose your tax-exempt status. He’s saying that he is — he signed an executive order in the White House saying, investigate two individuals who told the truth about the last election and criticized me publicly. That is weaponization.
JENNINGS: Regarding the universities, first of all, he’s creating, I think, a shield for the Jewish students on campus who have been the victim of horrible anti-Semitism. And he’s saying to these universities, you cannot simply screen out all viewpoints that don’t adhere to your anti-western civilization worldview.
PHILLIP: Absolutely, no one is doing that.
JENNINGS: Absolutely, they are.
PHILLIP: No one is — no, they’re not.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: What evidence do you have that they’re screaming —
JENNINGS: I mean, I’ve been on a college campus recently and I can certainly use my eyes and ears. These are hotbeds of anti-American and anti-western civilization activity, and everybody knows it.
JEMELE HILL: Based off what?
JENNINGS: And there’s no dissent on these campuses. Everyone’s afraid.
HILL: Oh, so wait. Now MAGA wants DEI?
JENNINGS: Everyone’s afraid.
HILL: Now, they want to be included. Like now, they want affirmative action for them. Like that’s cool now?
JENNINGS: So, you admit that you want universities to exclude everyone with the radical left?
HILL: No, because there’s no proof that they’re actually being excluded.
JENNINGS: There’s not?
HILL: No, there isn’t.
JENNINGS: 96 percent of contributions from Harvard faculty went to Democrats. What else you got?
HILL: Okay. So, you talking about contribution. I’m talking about actually–
JENNINGS: I’m talking about what people’s political viewpoints are.
HILL: Who’s on campus? Who is teaching people? So, if they were such a weapon –
JENNINGS: Yes, I know. I used to teach there. Believe me. I know.
HILL: Okay. So, clearly, you used to teach there, right?
JENNINGS: Yes. I was treated like an exotic zoo animal. Trust me.
HILL: Oh, I’m sure.
JENNINGS: The faculty is not conservative. Believe me.
HILL: Oh, okay. So, at Harvard, I just imagine all of these conservative politicians that go there, they go there because they don’t feel welcome. They just go there to go there?
JENNINGS: If you’re trying to come on here tonight and argue that Harvard is a hotbed of conservatism —
HILL: I’m not.
JENNINGS: Lord have mercy.
HILL: I’m just saying that they’re not. So, are we going to do the same thing at Baylor? Are we going to do the same thing at Liberty? Are we going to invite more liberal thoughts to those universities?
JENNINGS: I think if public universities or any university taking public funds is violating the civil rights of Jewish students or actively screening out conservatives and conservative viewpoints, we need to have a conversation.
ASHLEY ALLISON: Or what about discriminating against people of color? Can we like keep the — because I agree that Jewish students should be safe. I agree with that. I think that I become a better debater and a smarter person when I actually get to have discourse with people like you that I don’t all mostly agree with on the political views, but I also get a seat at the table and I don’t get to be discriminated against, and black people and brown people and queer people also don’t. So, if we’re going to protect one class, can we agree to protect all classes?
JENNINGS: What university is doing that? I agree, but what university is doing that?
ALLISON: I just want to know what is it —
JENNINGS: What class of people right now on American campuses is being — is facing the kind of pushback that Jewish students are anywhere, anywhere?
ALLISON: Well, we do know. We do know since the affirmative action decision that came down about 18 months ago, that the number of people of color who have been admitted to institutions have decreased because that’s a policy that actually insures —
JENNINGS: Do you include Asian students in the people of color.
ALLISON: Yes, their numbers are down too.
The exchange began, as framed by Phillip, as a discussion of President Donald Trump’s alleged “weaponizations” of government, citing the withholding of educational funding to universities unless they comply with certain terms. Jennings rightly disputes the premise, calling it a shielding of the American public against abuses by runaway government power.
This triggered Phillip and guest Jemele Hill into questioning Jennings’ statements, and denying that these things happen on campus, specifically as to campus antisemitism. What was their tolerance of antisemitic campus protests with obvious pro-Hamas sloganeering if not tacit support for campus antisemitism? And yes, there is viewpoint bias in the curriculum- proof evident of that is these institutions’ status, Harvard chief among them, as citadels of elite thought leadership.
Phillips’ laughing denials seem to forget what happened over the prior four years in terms of ACTUAL weaponized government. Whether the FACE Act prosecutions, the incarceration of misdemeanor J6 defendants without bond, the respective persecutions of Latin Mass adherents and parents opposed to the sexualization of children in schools, they all remained silent.
No one in the media said so much when the Biden Department of Education sought to withhold lunch money from public schools unless they allowed boys to dress as girls, play in girls’ sports, and have unfettered access to girls’ bathrooms. Apparently, it’s only “weaponization” when the wrong party does it. Jennings was right to call this nonsense out.
