Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) hammered Scott Jennings after the CNN commentator blamed diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives for the ongoing wildfires in southern California that have yet to be even remotely contained. At least five people have died and thousands of acres have burned as the fires are not close to being contained.
As some on the right did with the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, the failure of Silicon Valley Bank, the near-successful assassination attempt on President-elect Donald Trump, and other such outcomes, some right-wingers were quick to blame DEI in knee-jerk fashion.
“[I]n California, you might have recalled a news story from last year,” Jennings said on Wednesday’s CNN NewsNight. “There was some interest in the fire departments and the firefighters in California. And the interest was that there were too many White men who were firefighters. And we need to have a program in California to make sure we don’t have enough white men as firefighters.”
Jennings was referencing a 2024 report about a program in California intended to diversify the firefighting profession.
“We have DEI, we have budget cuts, and yet I’m wondering now if your house was burning down, how much do you care what color the firefighters are?” he added.
Crockett took exception, stating that DEI seeks to open opportunities to people who might otherwise not get them because of preconceived biases in the hiring process:
So, let me be clear. Because you are a woman or because – because I know that some of the right has been sharing these photos of the fact that I believe that the fire chief may be a woman or something – that has nothing to do with it. We are looking at qualifications. What diversity, equity, and inclusion has always been about is saying, “You know what, open this up. Don’t just look at the White men. Open it up and recognize that other people can be qualified.”
And the fact that we want to, at a time when people are dying, decide that a country of immigrants is failing or people are dying because the same very people that built this country, ’cause the last time I checked, y’all didn’t say that anything was wrong with the White House. And I can promise you, it was my ancestors that built the White House.
So, listen, if we have been good enough to build this country, we are good enough to serve and die overseas, we are good enough to serve in other ways. And the fact that people actually decide that they want to engage in public service, whether it’s sitting in Congress or whether it’s serving on the fire department or the police department, should not be an issue. The fact is, stop trying to act as if only White men are the ones that are capable because right now, you’re sitting at a table with three very capable black women.
Jennings protested that he was not saying only White men are capable of being effective firefighters.
“I’m not,” he said. “I’m just simply saying that as a matter of public policy in California, the main interest in the fire department lately has been in DEI programming and budget cuts.
“But Scott, are we really blaming the fire department?” host Abby Phillip asked. “The L.A. fire department?”
“No, I’m blaming the Democrats who run the state,” he said.
Meanwhile, over on Fox News earlier on Wednesday night, Laura Ingraham laid partial blame on Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, whom the host called “another DEI hire of the Biden administration.”
Watch above via CNN.
