CNN host Audie Cornish has taken aim at Donald Trump’s Patriot Games for their lack of diversity.
During Wednesday’s episode of CNN This Morning, Cornish pointed out that the competition was “overwhelmingly white.”
Trump made an appearance at the close of the Geneva, Ohio, games, which saw two high school athletes from every state—as well as some Native American tribes, military bases and overseas territories—compete as part of this year’s broader America 250 celebrations.
Speaking about the games, which were hosted by the Trump-backed Freedom 250 task force responsible for events such as the White House UFC fight and the Great American State Fair, she said: “Two winners now crowned in President Trump’s Patriot Games. The president promised the best of the best student athletes. I’m not sure that’s what we got.”
She continued, “A CNN analysis actually found that a specific demographic of kids got a shot to compete. Of the ones who were featured in the Freedom 250 Instagram page, many attend private Christian schools. They also appear to be overwhelmingly white, and the application for the games didn’t specify race.”
The Washington Post also pointed out that there was only a small number of non-white contenders, as did separate CNN coverage, which noted there was no specification about race in the application.
Details of how the analysis was conducted were not given by CNN, which also highlighted the heavy social media backlash against the games, with people denouncing the apparent lack of diversity.
“These are supposedly the best athletes from every state in the country, and they all happen to be white? I don’t know about that,” one person said, while another called it “The Dystopian Hunger Games.”
The competition had space for two winners—one boy and one girl between 14 and 17—who battled to win $125,000 in scholarship money.
Victory was eventually secured by Kansas’s Kennadi Fuhrman and Utah’s Rockwell Myers.
On Monday, the Daily Beast reported that Freedom 250 had fired off a barrage of emails trying to get people to attend the games after its State Fair appeared undersubscribed.
“YOU WILL NOT WANT TO MISS THIS,” one said, urging people to RSVP.
“President Donald J. Trump. Athletes from across the country battling for $250,000 in scholarships. A once-in-a-lifetime event—and you can be there as part of the live audience for the ESPN on ABC nationally televised prime-time special.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and Freedom 250 for comment.
