Ex-ESPN employee Jemele Hill called out the Los Angeles Dodgers for visiting President Donald Trump at the White House to celebrate their 2024 World Series victory.
Hill said on her podcast she was “disappointed” with the Dodgers for heading to our nation’s capital, and she brought up recent news of Jackie Robinson’s military service being briefly taken down from the Department of Defense’s website.
“I’m not surprised the Dodgers went to the White House, but I’m still disappointed they chose to [mingle] with the president, whose administration just recently tried to literally erase Jackie Robinson’s [legacy],” Hill explained.
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President Donald Trump speaks during a ceremony honoring the members of the 2024 World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the East Room at the White House. (Leah Millis/Reuters via Imagn Images)
“The people who are dedicated to erasing history do so because they actually want to repeat it. So, the Trump administration’s efforts to erase Jackie Robinson is on brand. When they did that, you would think you would have heard a loud and angry response from the Dodgers. Instead, you heard [crickets].”
While Hill implies the Trump administration deliberately tried to erase Robinson’s military record from the site, the Department of Defense told OutKick the department had instructed employees to flag all DEI content for removal through artificial intelligence, though staffers were given just one week to complete the task.
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Because of the short timeline, mistakes were made throughout the process, which includes the Robinson article, which had “DEI” in its URL.
Sean Parnell, assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs, confirmed the OutKick report with a statement.
Jemele Hill poses for a photo on the red carpet at the ESPN the Party event in the Houston arts district Feb. 3, 2017, in Houston. (Kirby Lee/USA Today Sports)
“Without question, this task was an arduous but incredibly important undertaking. We enforced an aggressive timeline for our DOD services and agencies to comb through a vast array of content, while ensuring that our force remains ready and lethal,” Parnell said. “Every now and then, because of the reality of AI tools and other software, some important content was incorrectly pulled offline to be reviewed.”
ESPN was first to report Robinson’s military service was removed from the DOD’s website. The department restored the article shortly after the report surfaced.
Later this month, the Philadelphia Eagles are heading to the White House to visit Trump. Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie, who has donated to Democrats in the past, called it a “time-honored tradition” to be invited to the White House, via Pro Football Talk.
“So, there was no reticence whatsoever,” Lurie added. “To be celebrated at the White House is a good thing. There were special circumstances (in 2018) that were very different, and so this was kind of an obvious choice and look forward to it.
Former ESPN host Jemele Hill (D Dipasupil/Getty Images for Advertising Week New York)
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“When you grow up, and you hear about, ‘Oh, the championship team got to go to the White House,’ that’s what this is. And, so, we didn’t have that opportunity and now we do. I think we’re all looking forward to it.”
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