CNN’s Kaitlan Collins fact-checked her MAGA-friendly colleague Scott Jennings Friday night after he disputed a report that the Defense Department will have a weight and height requirement for military members attending President Donald Trump’s White House UFC event.
“I asked the White House point-blank, ’Is this true? And I was told, quote, ‘Fake news from The Washington Post,’” Jennings said. “So, without being in the middle of it, I can only tell you what I’ve been told by the White House, is that there are no restrictions. They are inviting members of the military. They’re excited to have members of the military there.”
After Jennings riffed about Democrats being critical of the event as “fun vacuums,” Collins replied.
“There is literally a memo that said ticket recipients are required to meet the Department of War waist to height ratio standard of less than .55 as well as all service-specific physical fitness test requirements — that means troops would have to have a maximum 37-inch waist for the average man and a 35-inch waist for the average woman,” she said. “I mean, there’s a memo on it.”
The internal memo, reported by the Post, stipulates that military members who are paying for their own flight and accommodations to attend the June 14 event in uniform must “MUST MEET CURRENT WAIST-HEIGHT RATIO and current physical fitness standards.”
“Ticket recipients are required to meet the DOW waist-to-height ratio standard of less than 0.55, as well as all service specific physical fitness test requirements,” according to the memo, cited in a separate report by CNN.
One defense official described the selection requirements to CNN as “No fatties” and another official told the outlet that senior Pentagon leaders preferred the attending military members to “look good” on camera — “Basically, no fat soldiers.”
In response to Collins’ mention of the memo, Jennings told his CNN colleague, “The military has standards on physical fitness. Beyond that, I don’t know what to say about it, other than the White House says they’re happy to have military members come to this awesome event at the White House, and it sounds to me like it’s nitpicky, and it’ll find a way to criticize something that otherwise was kind of a communication stroke of genius.”
CNN political commentator Jamal Simmons bounced off Jennings’ point, claiming the Defense Department is “trying to use members of the military as props by using them as a backdrop for the president’s political priorities.”
“I would fix that. They need to let people come in the military because we’re honoring them for their service, not for their looks,” Simmons said.