CNN is being denounced for “humiliating stuff” and “nonsense” after a prime time panel discussion on President Trump’s changes to the Smithsonian museums led to a star host, Abby Phillip, lecturing a fitness influencer, Jillian Michael, about slavery, then shutting down the conversation. 

In a panel discussion on “NewsNight With Abby Phillip” about Mr. Trump’s decree that he’s launching of a review of all the Smithsonian’s museum exhibits — with the goal of removing “divisive or partisan narratives” — the mostly left-leaning panelists jumped on the president as Ms. Michaels listened.

A liberal Democratic congressman, Ritchie Torres, claimed that Mr. Trump was “poisoning” the institution.

A Democratic strategist, Julie Roginsky, claimed it was part of a larger campaign by Mr. Trump to change American history and even “whitewash” slavery at the Smithsonian.

That’s when Ms. Michaels tried to jump in to counter that argument. “No, he’s not,” Ms. Michaels said.

“You cannot tie imperialism and racism and slavery just to one race, which is pretty much what every single exhibit does,” Ms. Michaels said.

“Jillian, I’m surprised that you’re trying to litigate who was the beneficiary of slavery,” Ms. Phillip said to Ms. Michaels.

“I’m not,” Ms. Michaels.

“In the context of American history, what are you saying is incorrect by saying that it was white people oppressing black people?” Ms. Phillips asked.

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

Ms. Michaels then pointed out other Smithsonian exhibits she said were problematic, including one stating that it is “complex to do gender testing in sports.”

“It’s not complex, it’s basic science,” Ms. Michaels said. “Is it fair to have biological men competing against biological women in sports? No, but why is this in the Smithsonian?”

Ms. Phillip cut off Ms. Michaels and said, “We don’t have time to litigate all of this.”

Ms. Michaels responded, “Of course we don’t because then you’re going to lose the argument.”

CNN was ridiculed online after the segment. The progressive Tennessee Holler X account said it was humiliating for CNN to be “giving nonsense like this air time night after night.”

Others called for CNN to ban Ms. Michaels, but she received an outpouring of support online from conservatives after her appearance.

A former attorney for Mr. Trump, Jenna Ellis, posted an extended clip of Ms. Michaels from the segment and stated, “She’s utterly destroying their narrative.”

Another commenter stated that Ms. Michaels was “fierce, cogent and prepared.”

A conservative podcast host, Benny Johnson, posted, “Jillian Michaels utterly demolished the entire panel leaving them shrieking nonsensically.”

Ms. Michaels later posted a photo of a Smithsonian exhibit to back up the point she was trying to make on CNN. She said the exhibit on Cubans fleeing to the United States had no mention of them trying to get away from Fidel Castro’s communist regime and, instead, blamed American intervention in Latin America.

Ms. Michaels says that explanation “reduces a complex history to a narrative in which the United States alone destabilized the developing world.”