In a Friday appearance with Fox host Tucker Carlson, comedian Adam Carolla said Russia and China “must be delighted” by what he described as the U.S. intelligence community becoming increasingly focused on diversity and “wokeness” instead of its intelligence-gathering capabilities.
“This is us fighting ourselves, this woke culture, the diversity, the racism cries, the gender, the homophobia, this is us fighting ourselves, the Russians and the Chinese must be delighted that we have a self-induced civil war on our own nation,” Carolla told Carlson.
Carolla offered his comments in an appearance on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” after the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) used an apparent photoshopped stock image on its annual intelligence community diversity report.
Reacting to the ODNI’s Annual Demographic Report for Fiscal Year 2020, which was released Thursday, one Twitter user said, “For the cover of its diversity report, ODNI bought a stock photo called ‘Portrait Of Multi-Cultural Office Staff Standing In Lobby’ and then photoshopped a woman in a wheelchair and a blind guy into it. https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/portrait-multicultural-office-staff-standing-lobby-174469043.”
The Twitter user noted a photoshopping error in which the blind man’s shadow doesn’t match that of the rest of the individuals in the photo. “The dude is so intense he’s casting a shadow on light itself.”
The ODNI coordinates intelligence-gathering efforts among the 18 U.S. military and civilian intelligence agencies.
Addressing the apparent photoshopped stock image, Carlson asked Carolla, “Do you feel safer knowing our Intel community is represented by stock photos?”
Carolla replied, “No, when it comes to the Intel community, I want the best and the brightest, not the least Whitest.”
Carolla later said, “With their homogenous population, China and Russia are just free to use their technology to shut down our pipelines and hack into our infrastructure while we are using our technology to Photoshop.”
The criticism of the ODNI’s diversity report comes after the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) released a number of recruitment ads touting the diversity of their employees. One CIA ad featured an employee who describes herself as a “cisgender millennial” and “woman of color” who is “intersectional” and who has “been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder.” Another ad featured a gay man who grew up in a “small Southern town” and another featured a blind employee who talks about the agency’s push to “create a more inclusive environment.” The ads received criticism for focusing on the diversity of their employees, rather than portraying the work they do to benefit U.S. intelligence and national security efforts.
Carlson has frequently criticized the U.S. military and national security agencies for their focus on diversity. In March, Carlson sparked criticism from several U.S. military officials after a segment he did questioning the military’s priorities with a new maternity flight suits for female pilots and aircrew members.
Last month, Carlson criticized Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for remarks Milley made in defense of racially charged seminars and classroom instruction reported at the West Point U.S. Military Academy.
