Race has firmly inserted itself into the ongoing debate on whether, as Donald Trump claims, there’s a genocide of white farmers in South Africa.
On CNN’s NewsNight, host Abby Phillip grew so exasperated with the rhetoric coming from the right, she flat out asked conservative commentator Scott Jennings, “Why are you only concerned with white people?”
The oft-contentious duo had been discussing the fiery Oval Office meeting between President Donald Trump and his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa. Trump made his case with a multimedia presentation that included at least one big piece of misinformation — a photo that was actually taken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is located in southern Africa but is not a part of South Africa.
The picture first appeared as a screengrab from a video taken in February showing Red Cross workers responding after women were raped and burned alive during a mass jailbreak in the Congolese city of Goma. It’s led some to question the validity of Trump’s claims about a genocide, which have already been widely disputed.
Fox News reported Wednesday that the video shown to the South African delegation was actually political propaganda created by one of Ramaphosa’s political opponents. Footage of white crosses, which Trump claimed marked the number of white farmers killed, were not graves, according to The Washington Post, but part of a protest years ago against violence to white landowners, which South African leaders say is exaggerated.
But Trump’s base, which seems equally invested in the dubious allegations of mass killings of white farmers, is standing by the president. On Wednesday, Abby Phillip called out “the conspiracy land of the far right,” which has pushed the genocide narrative forwarded by the president and Elon Musk, a South African native and key Trump ally.
“And it’s amazing that this has actually become the foreign policy of the United States based on just straight up — I mean, we have the numbers,” Phillip said. “It is completely unsubstantiated.”
Jennings shot back, “You’re saying it’s not true that some white farmers have been murdered?”
Phillip repeated the widely shared assertion that there is no genocide.
Jennings pushed back: “Whatever you call it, have white farmers been murdered? Has violence been committed against white farmers?”
Phillip then asked Jennings just how many white farmers have been murdered.
“I don’t know, several,” he responded.
Using figures from South African authorities and backed by advocacy groups, Phillip said out of the 19,000 murders committed in South Africa in the last nine months of 2024 last year, 36 occurred on farms.
“Seven of the victims were farmers, OK,” she said. The remaining 29 were farm employees who “tend to be Black,” Phillip continued.
“So, the vast majority of people killed on farms in South Africa are Black,” Phillip continued. “Where is the concern about them?”
Jennings responded with Trump administration propaganda, saying, “The concern is that there are white farmers who have had violence committed against them, and they’re being threatened every single day.”
Phillip then asked, “Why are you only concerned about white people?”
“I’m only concerned about this story because these 59 people asked for status,” Jennings replied. “They’re getting status, and now everybody’s freaking out about it.”
He then said, if there was no threat to white South Africans, “Then why are they trying to get out?”
