On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Laura Coates Live,” Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) said Gen. CQ Brown was removed as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff due to his race and responded to pushback that other officials who are white were dismissed by stating that Brown got called “woke” and “DEI” and “they are substituting these acronyms for the n-word. So, why would you apply the term woke to Gen. Brown? What does that mean?”
Clyburn began by saying,” I believe that everybody knows what an outstanding soldier Gen. Brown is and has been, for many, many years. He has a 40-year career in the military. Nobody has found any fault with him. Because of his skin color, he has been declared DEI or woke.”
Host Laura Coates then cut in to ask, “Is that why you think the president has let him go, because he’s black?”
Clyburn answered, “That’s what I think.”
Coates then asked, “As you know, there have been others who have been fired…Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti, Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James Slife. DOGE is creating a whole lot of chaos, as you know, but just, in terms of why you think the Joint Chiefs of Staff [Chairman], CQ Brown, was let go, what is your reaction to those who would say, hold on, there were others who were let go, are you leaping to conclusions? What’s your reaction?
Clyburn responded, “I’m not leaping to anything. I’m going by that book that Hegseth wrote. What did he write in that book? now, you know that these words that they’re throwing around like woke, that’s an [acronym] that they have come up with, and you know what it means. When they say DEI, we know what it means. As I heard somebody say earlier today, they are substituting these acronyms for the n-word. So, why would you apply the term woke to Gen. Brown? What does that mean?”
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