Katie Couric Dismisses Jillian Michaels’ Claim That Slavery Isn’t That Big a Deal: ‘She’s a Fitness Instructor, Not a Historian’ | Video

Katie Couric came in hot Thursday afternoon with some breaking news: former “The Biggest Loser” instructor Jillian Michaels is, indeed, not a historian.

The fitness pro-turned-conservative commentator caught some strays from the seasoned journalist during an Instagram Live she hosted with historian and professor Douglas Brinkley. While the engagement was primarily dedicated to President Donald Trump’s mandates against the Smithsonian and its National Museum of African American History and Culture, Couric asked Brinkley midway through the 26-minute discussion to weigh in on Michaels.

Couric called on him to “debunk … or at least contextualize” comments Michaels made on CNN last week downplaying the impact slavery has had on American society, arguing that only 2% of Americans owned slaves. “I think she is completely missing the point here, Doug,” Couric said.

“I don’t understand people who say things like that,” Brinkley said, echoing Couric’s frustration. “I mean, our whole history is about the Civil War and how Abraham Lincoln is the known as the Great Emancipator; you have the Lincoln Memorial there in Washington honoring him; his tomb in Illinois — Springfield — is sacred grounds. It is the crucible of the United States, the Civil War — 800,000 people killed. The ravages of slavery kind of exposed, we fought all of that. So one needs to study it.”

While Brinkley went on to place Michaels’ comments into the larger scope of Trump’s “whitewashing,” Couric later brought it back to the CNN dust-up.

“With all due respect, she is a fitness instructor and isn’t a historian,” Couric said of Michaels. “And I think it fails to acknowledge the institutional damage and the institutional prevalence of slavery writ large for the economy and for the people who enabled it and empowered it and embraced it.”

She added that speaking on such matters “without any kind of perspective or historical context, it’s a really dangerous thing.”

Watch the Instagram Live interview via Couric’s YouTube channel below:

While guesting Aug. 13 on CNN’s “NewsNight With Abby Phillip,” Michaels pushed back on the response to Trump’s effort to limit exhibitions on Black history and slavery and instead “celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions” at the Smithsonian and elsewhere. She argued, “[Trump’s] not whitewashing slavery … You cannot tie imperialism and racism and slavery just to one race, which is pretty much what every single [museum] exhibit does.”

Michaels received immediate pushback from her fellow panelists, who reminded her that they were discussing the Smithsonian’s exhibits covering American history. “Jillian, I’m surprised that you’re trying to litigate who was the beneficiary of slavery,” Phillip told Michaels. “In the context of American history, what are you saying is incorrect by saying that it was white people oppressing black people?”

“Every single thing is like, ‘Oh, no, no, no, this is all because white people bad,’” Michaels responded. “That’s just not the truth.”

After the segment’s airing, viewers swiftly took to social media to blast Michaels for her comments — and criticize CNN for booking her in the first place.

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