A wild segment on CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip, AKA “The Thunderdome”, left bare for all to see that the network is now tripling down on dangerous disinformation. Despite being recently found liable and punished for defamation, the once and former World Leader in News persists on smearing Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk by flogging the dead-and-debunked Salute Hoax.
The segment sought to cobble several events together in hopes of bolstering a narrative of Musk as Nazi sympathizer. There is Musk’s speech at the Trump inaugural parade, his use of Nazi names in puns mocking the Salute Hoax, and his subsequent speech to populist-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD). In the face of many mischaracterizations and misrepresentations, “Lonely Scott” Jennings lived up to his nickname and prevailed as the voice of reason.
Host Abby Phillip opens the segment with innuendo and factless speculation about Musk’s motives, and one giant misrepresentation:
ABBY PHILLIP: Tonight: Never forget. Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day, when the world pauses to seriously think about one of the most depraved chapters in human history, to think about the systematic extermination of people. But judging by his comments over the weekend and Elon Musk might not be thinking about any of that today. Musk appeared at a rally for the AfD. They are Germany's far right party, and on the stage, Musk was asked- Musk asked the world to give Germany permission to forget.
ELON MUSK: It's good to be proud of German culture, German values and not to lose that in some sort of, uh, multiculturalism that- that- that- that- dilutes everything. I think there's like, frankly, too much of a- of a focus on, on past guilt. And we need to move beyond that. Um, people, you know, children should not be guilty of the sins of their parents or even let alone their parents, their great grandparents.
PHILLIP: Joining us in our fifth seat is CNN Economics commentator, Catherine Rampell. She is a Washington Post opinion columnist. That -- what Elon Musk just said there is music to the ears of the AfD. According to the Anti-Defamation League, some of their leaders have twice been fined by a German court for using a banned Nazi symbol. They've called for Germany to stop atoning for Nazi crimes. And a judge ruled that one AfD leader could be described as fascist without fear of defamation because it is, quote, "a value judgment based on facts". And these are the people that Musk is saying, “don't worry about the Holocaust, we can forget about it.”
Phillip displayed a splashy tear sheet to bolster her points, but they those points out to be fake.
A 10-second Google search yields that it’s not “some of their leaders” that were twice fined by a German court. It was one guy, a state-level leader who is also the same person described by a judge as “fascist”. Phillip takes this one set of facts and chops it up in order to create the illusion of the AfD as unanimously Nazi. This is not unlike someone inferring that the whole of the Democratic Party is anti-Semitic based on U.S. Rep. Rachida Tlaib (D-IL) wearing a t-shirt that erased Israel. But the media would howl bloody murder if such an inference were made.
Musk is accused of calling upon Germans to forget the horrors of Nazism, but no such call is found within his remarks to the AfD (as transcribed on X by @ElonClips). Rather, his statement was in line with the AfD’s stated call to attention to the whole of German history, as opposed to a narrow focus on Nazism.
The current narrowing of the German culture of remembrance to the time of National Socialism should be opened in favour of a broader understanding of history, which also encompasses the positive, identity-establishing aspects of German history.
“The narrowing…should be opened” is inclusive and encompassing of all history, not a call to forget. But CNN’s fact-checking appears to be limited to Daniel Dale popping up out of a box of Tim Horton’s every time Donald Trump gives a speech, so viewers are exposed to disinformation- which I’m told is a very bad thing.
That led to this fiery exchange, best described as Jennings against the table (click “expand” to view transcript):
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Look, the first time that Elon Musk decides to declare that globalist Jews are responsible for the Great Replacement of brown people into the United States, maybe it was a misunderstanding. You know, the second time he said that "Jews are pushing hatred against white people," that's a quote, you know, that was a little iffy. By the second Sieg Heil, I think he kind of loses the benefit of the doubt to be not accused of playing footsie with these Nazis. I'm not saying he's a Nazi, I'm saying the Nazis think he's a Nazi, which they very clearly did at this event. And this was not -- these words were not said in a vacuum. As you pointed out, the leaders of AfD have embraced in many cases the Nazi heritage. They have wanted to take down the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, saying it is inappropriate to recognize this horrific chapter in German history. And I just think it's horrific. I don't understand why this guy keeps getting the benefit of the doubt, whether or not he believes this stuff personally.
PHILLIP: You didn't even mention the Nazi jokes…
RAMPELL: Oh, absolutely.
PHILLIP: …he was making on Twitter…
RAMPELL: Yeah. He's been given so many chances.
PHILLIP: That actually got the ADL to say something about it.
RAMPELL: Yeah.
PHILLIP: I was hearing a lot of sighing, Scott. What's the deal?
SCOTT JENNINGS: Yeah, I mean, we've moved on from Trump Derangement Syndrome to Elon Derangement Syndrome.
RAMPELL: No, I'm sorry, do you want to defend them saying -- the Germans get to defend --
JENNINGS: There's ample --
RAMPELL: -- the Germans get to defend --
PHILLIP: Let me let him finish, Catherine.
JENNINGS: I love this game we play where you talk for two minutes, I talk for three seconds --
PHILLIP: Go ahead, Scott.
JENNINGS: -- and you freak out. So -- so, he has a long record of supporting the Jewish people, number one. Number two, anybody who is asserting this thing he did on the stage the other day was a Sieg Heil, which I just heard you say, you know, lawyer up maybe, because absolute ridiculous thing to say. Under no circumstances --
RAMPELL: The Nazis in Germany thought it was a Sieg Heil. The Nazis in Germany thought it was a Sieg-Heil.
JENNINGS: Under no circumstances was he doing anything other than expressing enthusiastically --
RAMPELL: Why don't you do it on TV right now?
JENNINGS: -- his appreciation to the crowd.
RAMPELL: Why don't you do it on TV right now if you think it's so --
PHILLIP: Look, hold on.
RAMPELL: -- so, you know --
JENNINGS: Number three. I think it is fully appropriate and I of course have been the strongest supporter of the Jewish people on this network for over a year since October the 7th --
RAMPELL: Is that true?
JENNINGS: -- to remember -- to remember the Holocaust and to remember the atrocities committed against the Jewish people. And I also think it's appropriate to remember the atrocities committed against them right now and it seems to me, let me just finish my point, it seems to me --
PHILLIP: No, I won't let you change the subject.
JENNINGS: It seems to me.
PHILLIP: Let's address what we're talking about.
JENNINGS: I'm trying to finish my point.
RAMPELL: As the Jew at this table --
JENNINGS: I'm trying to finish my point.
RAMPELL: --I would say --
JENNINGS: The people who are most concerned about and are most all over Elon Musk today have had nary a word for the Nazis on college campuses who've gone crazy for the last year and a half.
PHILLIP: That is not real. That is not true.
CAMPELL: That is bull. That is bull. I am a Jew who has criticized the people on college campuses for saying anti-Semitic things. I will go on the record as saying that I am also criticizing this man who a day or two before Holocaust Remembrance Day makes light of this moment, this horrific moment in German history, the reason why Germans remember this moment.
JENNINGS: He's not. I don't believe he's making light of it. I disagree with that.
RAMPELL: He is, absolutely.
PHILLIP: This is why I want you to address what we are talking about here because I -- you can talk all day about college campuses. But Elon Musk, two days before Holocaust Remembrance Day, went and spoke in front of a far-right party that, as part of their platform, wants to atone- they want to erase the idea that Germany is responsible for this terrible thing --
RAMPELL: A lot of them deny the Holocaust even happened.
PHILLIP: -- in history. They want to deny the Holocaust. He decided, the thing I'm going to do today is speak before a bunch of far-right people who in their own country have been sent to court for using banned Nazi symbols, really?
JENNINGS: Look, look, I think, I think, it is possible to do two things. One, support the Jewish people in the memory of the victims of the Holocaust. And number two, say something that is actually, factually correct. Nobody being born today is responsible for whatever in the Holocaust.
RAMPELL: Do you know why we remember the Holocaust?
JENNINGS: Just like nobody being born today is responsible for slavery.
RAMPELL: Do you know why we remember the Holocaust? Do you know why it's important to teach --
ASHLEY ALLISON: So it never happens again.
RAMPELL: It's so that we can understand --
JENNINGS: Agree. And I totally support that.
RAMPELL: It's so that we can understand normal seeming people -- it's so we can understand how normal seeming people can be complicit in horrific acts.
ALLISON: I think -- yeah.
RAMPELL: That is the purpose of understanding and remembering the Holocaust.
JENNINGS: And what horrific act is Elon Musk endorsing today, in your opinion?
RAMPELL: I don't know, detention camps?
JENNINGS: Come on. Come on.
PHILLIP: Well, look.
RAMPELL: What do you mean, come on?
ALLISON: I mean --
JENNINGS: I mean, you are way off the rails.
PHILLIP: I think it's kind of --
RAMPELL: I'm off the rails. You're the one who defended Sieg Heiling as a normal activity.
PHILLIP: Scott, just a second. Scott.
JENNINGS: This is -- this salute trutherism is out -- this is the most --
RAMPELL: So do it right now on TV.
JENNINGS: This is the biggest conspiracy theory going on in media. It’s crazy.
So invested are these hosts at CNN in the Salute Hoax, whether Erin Burnett, Kasie Hunt, Dana Bash or now Abby Phillip, that they are willing to outright lie in furtherance of it. Notice how Phillip escalates from “some people” to “a bunch of people”. Jennings handled himself as a gentleman despite facing the wrath of the braying mob, led by Phillip.
The funniest part of this exchange is the routine citation of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) as an appeal to authority, but they were among the first to debunk the Salute Hoax:
This is a delicate moment. It’s a new day and yet so many are on edge. Our politics are inflamed, and social media only adds to the anxiety.
— ADL (@ADL) January 20, 2025
It seems that @elonmusk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute, but again, we appreciate that people are on…
This led socialist congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to lose her composure and subsequently Jewsplain Nazi Salutes to the ADL.
Abby Phillip ended the segment with this last dig at Jennings:
PHILLIP: Well, look, not everything needs to be defended, even if you think he's a genius. There are some lines that we just don't cross.
While "not everything needs to be defended", the truth must ALWAYS be defended. Even against Regime Media demagogues gleefully crossing the line into defamation.
Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned segment as aired on CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip, on Monday, January 28th, 2025:
CNN NEWSNIGHT WITH ABBY PHILLIP
1/27/25
10:37 PM
ABBY PHILLIP: Tonight: Never forget. Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day, when the world pauses to seriously think about one of the most depraved chapters in human history, to think about the systematic extermination of people. But judging by his comments over the weekend and Elon Musk might not be thinking about any of that today. Musk appeared at a rally for the AfD. They are Germany's far right party, and on the stage, Musk was asked- Musk asked the world to give Germany permission to forget.
ELON MUSK: It's good to be proud of German culture, German values and not to lose that in some sort of, uh, multiculturalism that- that- that- that- dilutes everything. I think there's like, frankly, too much of a- of a focus on, on past guilt. And we need to move beyond that. Um, people, you know, children should not be guilty of the sins of their parents or even let alone their parents, their great grandparents.
PHILLIP: Joining us in our fifth seat is CNN Economics commentator, Catherine Rampell. She is a Washington Post opinion columnist. That -- what Elon Musk just said there is music to the ears of the AfD. According to the Anti-Defamation League, some of their leaders have twice been fined by a German court for using a banned Nazi symbol. They've called for Germany to stop atoning for Nazi crimes. And a judge ruled that one AfD leader could be described as fascist without fear of defamation because it is, quote, "a value judgment based on facts". And these are the people that Musk is saying, “don't worry about the Holocaust, we can forget about it.”
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Look, the first time that Elon Musk decides to declare that globalist Jews are responsible for the Great Replacement of brown people into the United States, maybe it was a misunderstanding. You know, the second time he said that "Jews are pushing hatred against white people," that's a quote, you know, that was a little iffy. By the second Sieg Heil, I think he kind of loses the benefit of the doubt to be not accused of playing footsie with these Nazis. I'm not saying he's a Nazi, I'm saying the Nazis think he's a Nazi, which they very clearly did at this event. And this was not -- these words were not said in a vacuum. As you pointed out, the leaders of AfD have embraced in many cases the Nazi heritage. They have wanted to take down the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, saying it is inappropriate to recognize this horrific chapter in German history. And I just think it's horrific. I don't understand why this guy keeps getting the benefit of the doubt, whether or not he believes this stuff personally.
PHILLIP: You didn't even mention the Nazi jokes…
RAMPELL: Oh, absolutely.
PHILLIP: …he was making on Twitter…
RAMPELL: Yeah. He's been given so many chances.
PHILLIP: That actually got the ADL to say something about it.
RAMPELL: Yeah.
PHILLIP: I was hearing a lot of sighing, Scott. What's the deal?
SCOTT JENNINGS: Yeah, I mean, we've moved on from Trump Derangement Syndrome to Elon Derangement Syndrome.
RAMPELL: No, I'm sorry, do you want to defend them saying -- the Germans get to defend --
JENNINGS: There's ample --
RAMPELL: -- the Germans get to defend --
PHILLIP: Let me let him finish, Catherine.
JENNINGS: I love this game we play where you talk for two minutes, I talk for three seconds --
PHILLIP: Go ahead, Scott.
JENNINGS: -- and you freak out. So -- so, he has a long record of supporting the Jewish people, number one. Number two, anybody who is asserting this thing he did on the stage the other day was a Sieg Heil, which I just heard you say, you know, lawyer up maybe, because absolute ridiculous thing to say. Under no circumstances --
RAMPELL: The Nazis in Germany thought it was a Sieg Heil. The Nazis in Germany thought it was a Sieg-Heil.
JENNINGS: Under no circumstances was he doing anything other than expressing enthusiastically --
RAMPELL: Why don't you do it on TV right now?
JENNINGS: -- his appreciation to the crowd.
RAMPELL: Why don't you do it on TV right now if you think it's so --
PHILLIP: Look, hold on.
RAMPELL: -- so, you know --
JENNINGS: Number three. I think it is fully appropriate and I of course have been the strongest supporter of the Jewish people on this network for over a year since October the 7th --
RAMPELL: Is that true?
JENNINGS: -- to remember -- to remember the Holocaust and to remember the atrocities committed against the Jewish people. And I also think it's appropriate to remember the atrocities committed against them right now and it seems to me, let me just finish my point, it seems to me --
PHILLIP: No, I won't let you change the subject.
JENNINGS: It seems to me.
PHILLIP: Let's address what we're talking about.
JENNINGS: I'm trying to finish my point.
RAMPELL: As the Jew at this table --
JENNINGS: I'm trying to finish my point.
RAMPELL: --I would say --
JENNINGS: The people who are most concerned about and are most all over Elon Musk today have had nary a word for the Nazis on college campuses who've gone crazy for the last year and a half.
PHILLIP: That is not real. That is not true.
CAMPELL: That is bull. That is bull. I am a Jew who has criticized the people on college campuses for saying anti-Semitic things. I will go on the record as saying that I am also criticizing this man who a day or two before Holocaust Remembrance Day makes light of this moment, this horrific moment in German history, the reason why Germans remember this moment.
JENNINGS: He's not. I don't believe he's making light of it. I disagree with that.
RAMPELL: He is, absolutely.
PHILLIP: This is why I want you to address what we are talking about here because I -- you can talk all day about college campuses. But Elon Musk, two days before Holocaust Remembrance Day, went and spoke in front of a far-right party that, as part of their platform, wants to atone- they want to erase the idea that Germany is responsible for this terrible thing --
RAMPELL: A lot of them deny the Holocaust even happened.
PHILLIP: -- in history. They want to deny the Holocaust. He decided, the thing I'm going to do today is speak before a bunch of far-right people who in their own country have been sent to court for using banned Nazi symbols, really?
JENNINGS: Look, look, I think, I think, it is possible to do two things. One, support the Jewish people in the memory of the victims of the Holocaust. And number two, say something that is actually, factually correct. Nobody being born today is responsible for whatever in the Holocaust.
RAMPELL: Do you know why we remember the Holocaust?
JENNINGS: Just like nobody being born today is responsible for slavery.
RAMPELL: Do you know why we remember the Holocaust? Do you know why it's important to teach --
ASHLEY ALLISON: So it never happens again.
RAMPELL: It's so that we can understand --
JENNINGS: Agree. And I totally support that.
RAMPELL: It's so that we can understand normal seeming people -- it's so we can understand how normal seeming people can be complicit in horrific acts.
ALLISON: I think -- yeah.
RAMPELL: That is the purpose of understanding and remembering the Holocaust.
JENNINGS: And what horrific act is Elon Musk endorsing today, in your opinion?
RAMPELL: I don't know, detention camps?
JENNINGS: Come on. Come on.
PHILLIP: Well, look.
RAMPELL: What do you mean, come on?
ALLISON: I mean --
JENNINGS: I mean, you are way off the rails.
PHILLIP: I think it's kind of --
RAMPELL: I'm off the rails. You're the one who defended Sieg Heiling as a normal activity.
PHILLIP: Scott, just a second. Scott.
JENNINGS: This is -- this salute trutherism is out -- this is the most --
RAMPELL: So do it right now on TV.
JENNINGS: This is the biggest conspiracy theory going on in media. It’s crazy.
RAMPELL: So do it right now on TV. If you think it's normal, if you think this is a normal way to greet people, do it right now on TV. Why won't you?
PHILLIP: I want to redirect us here because I get it. It's easier for you to defend for whatever reason, the Sieg Heil. Okay, fine. But --
JENNINGS: Is that what you're calling it? Are you saying it's your position that he was giving a Nazi salute?
PHILLIP: No, no, I am saying, you just called it a Sieg Heil, truth or is it not a thing?
JENNINGS: She did.
PHILLIP: That is the conversation that you want to have. But there's another part of the conversation.
JENNINGS: She brought it up.
PHILLIP: Hold on. That is about- Elon Musk has his pattern of behavior that includes giving support to individuals who, in their own country, are believed to be so far to the right that they are adjacent to the Nazis. That is what's going on in Germany. I mean, I mean, I wonder when you hear --
JENNINGS: I'm sorry, that's what the Democrats argued about the Republicans in the last election. I mean, in the United States. They called them fascists and they called them Nazi rallies. That's what they did.
PHILLIP: Scott.
JENNINGS: That's what -- see? You're doing it right now.
ALLISON: I'm just saying --
JENNINGS: Go ahead and say it out loud. Say that Republicans are Nazis. Say it. Go ahead.
RAMPELL: I can't believe you're defending this.
ALLISON: I think there is an adult way to handle this conversation.
PHILLIP: So Scott, are you really putting- are you really putting…
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: …putting it all on the line for the AFD. Like, really? Is that what you’re doing?
JENNINGS: I'm not an expert on German politics.
PHILLIP: Okay, so then maybe you should --
JENNINGS: But I'm saying, but you're like, oh, these people are Nazi -- I heard that same thing at this table for six months last year.
PHILLIP: Maybe before you should defend -- before you defend them, let me -- maybe I need to read this again. Okay. According to the ADL, there have been leaders of this political party that have been twice fined by a German court for using banned Nazi symbols. They have also called for Germany to stop atoning for Nazi (unint), okay?
JENNINGS: There are leaders of the Democratic Party in the United States --
PHILLIP: There are people --
JENNINGS: -- who condone anti-Semitism today.
PHILLIP: Okay -- leaders. The co-founders of this party engaged in extremist speech to the extent that a judge ruled that that leader could be described as fascist, okay? These are people --
JENNINGS: Literally all the things I heard last year in America. All the things.
PHILLIP: -- who even within Germany are viewed to be extremists, and I'm surprised to hear you defend them.
RAMPELL: So, are you saying, like, are you saying 50 percent of Republicans deny the existence of the Holocaust because that's the case for AfD members?
JENNINGS: I don't know anything about German politics. I am not an expert on German politics. I am telling you, I am here to stand up against the defamatory statements against Elon Musk.
PHILLIP: Let me let the governor- and then I think we have to go.
TIM PAWLENTY: Just briefly.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: Go ahead.
PAWLENTY: Just briefly. January 27th, today, is International Holocaust Remembrance or Memorial Day. Today of all days is a great day to have this discussion, and by the way, that Elon's comments were, we should move beyond. I don't think we should ever move beyond remembering the Holocaust, the horrors of the Holocaust, the accountability around how and why it happened, who it impacted, the lessons learned in history. It should resonate forever in our minds and in our conscience and our moral presence. And so, I don't want to move beyond -- nobody should move beyond those lessons. So you know, he says a lot of things. Let's face it. He is a brilliant, eccentric, provocative, you know, person. And he's going to say a lot of things. This one was out of line.
PHILLIP: Are you okay with him speaking in front of this group?
PAWLENTY: The AfD?
PHILLIP: Yeah.
PAWLENTY: I don't know much about it other than what you just said. It's not a group I would recommend, you know, people talking to with that kind of record.
RAMPELL: I would just say we should look at this in the context of all of the other things Elon Musk has done. This is not a one-off event where he spoke to a right-wing group. Again, he has said he thinks that Jews are pushing hatred against white people. That's why he had to do his little, like, apology tour going to Auschwitz, which apparently he's very resentful of.
PHILLIP: Yeah, I mean, the Great Replacement Theory, I mean, I heard another sigh from Scott. But the Great Replacement Theory is an anti- Semitic racist theory. Like that is what it is. So, he endorsed -- and he endorsed it, so there is that. We don't know what the gesture he made, what it really means. Catherine has made her judgment, you've made yours, but it's all the other stuff that we are talking about. Why does he keep doing it? I don't get it.
MARIA CARDONA: It is all the other stuff, Abby. And none of it can be taken in a vacuum, which is what makes it so disturbing, because all of it together, this is not the first group that he talks to that what he says and what he does and the gestures that he makes give comfort to neo-Nazis. I mean, that's the reality. And the fact that he gives comfort to neo-Nazis should give a ton of discomfort to people who are Elon Musk supporters especially because he has the ear of the President of the United States.
RAMPELL: Especially if you're the greatest defender of Jews on this network, you should be discomforted by this.
JENNINGS: All the same rhetoric that they applied to the Republican Party and to Donald Trump in the general election last year, it has literally just been transferred to Elon Musk. All of it.
ALLISON: I think -- I don't think that is accurate, but what I will say is that I don't know what that gesture was he did on stage, but I know if I was accused of doing it and that wasn't what I meant, I would make sure I wasn't doing that. That's, I think, the adult thing to do, say, I'm sorry if that was what it came off as, but that would never be because this is what I believe. And then I wouldn't follow it a week later by being in front of people who deny the Holocaust. I just think that, like, a student, a child could see that.
PHILLIP: Well, look, not everything needs to be defended, even if you think he's a genius. There are some lines that we just don't cross. Catherine Rampell, thank you very much for joining us. Back in a moment.
