Brian Kilmeade speaks with Republican presidential candidates after the debate
‘Fox & Friends’ co-host Brian Kilmeade speaks with candidates about the top moments and asks voters how they felt about the debate.
Left-wing media predictions that Wednesday night's Republican primary debate would be littered with mentions of the word "woke" flopped, as the word received a single mention the entire evening.
Progressives have long fumed at what they view as right-wing appropriation of the word "woke," which has roots in African-American vernacular historically and meant being hyper-alert to racial injustice. It's now a common pejorative among conservatives for an array of liberal or overly politically correct issues and causes, and while it's often been deployed on the campaign trail by candidates like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, it wasn't a topic Wednesday at the debate hosted by Fox News.
The only time it came up was near the end of the night, when former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley made a passing reference to "crazy woke things happening in schools."
But several media members wrongly predicted the word would be heard over and over.
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"I want you to keep your ears tuned for one single word: Woke. You’ve heard it before, and I’m betting you’ll hear it a lot more tonight. Or at least enough to rankle your nerves. Or maybe mine," MSNBC columnist Trymaine Lee wrote for the site ahead of the debate.
Republican presidential candidates (L-R), former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy participate in the first debate of the GOP primary season hosted by FOX News at Fiserv Forum on August 23, 2023, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Win McNamee / Getty Images)
Lee said that the word had become as vicious as a racial slur to some because of its use by Republicans.
"'It’s almost another way of saying ‘Black.’ It’s another way of saying the N-word,' Ishena Robinson, the editorial director of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, told me," he wrote.
MSNBC host Jose Diaz-Balart said "there is one word voters should expect to hear: woke," while previewing an appearance by Lee on the network Wednesday.
NBC News reporter Ben Collins, who covers "misinformation" for the site, predicted DeSantis would say it more than anyone else and there could be dozens of mentions.
Other liberal media members and X users agreed.
"Are we talking about the first 30 minutes?" one Daily Beast reporter asked.
"DeSantis should come close to the o/u (over/under) by himself," Salt Lake Tribune reporter Bryan Schott wrote.
"DeSantis will be in double digits within 30 seconds," actor John Cusack said.
The incorrect prediction caught some attention online; Washington Free Beacon reporter Joe Simonson wrote, "how's this going" at one point.
Haley's mention of the word near the end of the night finally ended the drought, but the intense focus on the term foreseen by liberal media members didn't come to pass.
The debate did have some surprises, however, such as the opening question that referenced the viral country song "Rich Men North of Richmond," and several fiery clashes between the GOP candidates over former President Trump, Ukraine, abortion and other hot-button topics. Fox News debate moderators Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum delved into several other issues as well, including illegal immigration and climate change.
The term "woke" has become far more prevalent among politicians in recent years; the New York Times reported that the word wasn't uttered a single time in any Republican presidential debate during the 2016 cycle. It's also come under criticism, even from the right, as too vague and even esoteric to resonate with everyday Americans.
Trump, the current frontrunner in the 2024 GOP primary, remarked earlier this year in Iowa that he didn't like the word because it was too nebulous.
"It’s gotten sick, and I don’t like the term woke, because I hear woke, woke, woke. You know it’s like just a term they use. Half the people can’t even define it. They don’t know what it is," Trump said.
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