On Wednesday, CNN host Don Lemon leaned into his claim from almost one year ago exactly about Trump supporters that earned him our Chris Cuomo Memorial Award for Worst Quote of the Year.
During his eponymous show, Lemon insisted those who oppose him, President Biden, and other Democrats, aren’t like the KKK, Nazis, segregationists like Bull Connor and George Wallace, and treasonists like the Confederacy, but instead “on the” same “side” as those groups.
One of CNN’s many rhetorical arsonists, Lemon used this asinine sleight of hand in denouncing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s speech denouncing President Biden’s scorched earth remarks Tuesday afternoon on his plans to carry out a federal power grab over our elections.
Couching those opposing Biden in supporting Donald Trump’s “big lie of bogus voter fraud” and “the insurrection” at the U.S. Capitol, Lemon played a portion of McConnell’s speech before complaining “Republicans” and “conservative media” are “beyond being hyperbolic” and act “full of indignation” in misleading audiences.
That's called projection.
Lemon framed how McConnell was “lying about what the President said” by arguing Biden never “demonize[d] Americans who disagree with him” in Georgia, but instead “la[id] out a rhetorical choice.”
“A rhetorical choice?” What in the world is that? If contorting words were an Olympic sport, Lemon would get, at minimum, a medal.
Lemon continued:
What he said was not that you are Bull Connor, that you are George Wallace, there's a difference. He said you're on the side, and there's a big difference there. There's a rhetorical choice. Do you side with those — side with those who fought for our most sacred right as Americans, the right to vote, or not that you are those people, do you side with those who fought against it?
Following a Biden clip, Lemon further unspooled this web by claiming those who support “voting rights protection” aren’t literally John Lewis or Martin Luther King, but on their “side.”
He then restated what he insisted during his January 13, 2021 show and how Trump supporters aren’t Nazis, but they’re in bed with them. And more to the present, he also claimed Biden’s agenda has majority support and thus McConnell’s support for the U.S. Senate’s current rules is some sort of tyranny of the minority (click “expand”):
As I have said before, if you were a supporter of this President, then you voted for the President — or the former President, Trump, then you voted for the President who what? The bigots supported. The Klan supported, right? The Proud Boys supported, the alt-right supported. Didn't mean that you were a member of that, but those who — that's who supported the former President.
So, if you don't believe in the voting rights legislation, then Joe Biden is absolutely right. That's the side that you're on. People who have historically voted against voting rights protections for the majority and then he also said here untrammeled control over the country by Democrats or for one party he said, but what he's actually saying is that the majority — right — Democrats are in the majority now, and the majority of the country wants voting rights protection that that's not right because the minority wants something else. So, what he is actually espousing here is minority rule. Mitch McConnell, we see you, and you know better.
He eventually wrapped up by speculating on why reauthorizations of the 1965 Voting Rights Act no longer receive Republican support: “What is so different now? T-r-u-m-p, f-e-a-r, the big l-i-e? What is so different now? Voting rights protections haven't changed. We haven't grown all of a sudden, a different group of ethnicities.”
Gag.
Lemon declaring those who disagree with him to be part and parcel with the Confederacy, KKK, and Nazi Party was made possible thanks to the endorsement of advertisers such as Fidelity and LegalZoom. Check out the links to see their contact information at the MRC’s Conservatives Fight Back page.
To see the relevant CNN transcript from January 12, click “expand.”
CNN’s Don Lemon Tonight
January 12, 2022
10:10 p.m. EasternDON LEMON: Meanwhile, the former President's big lie of bogus voter fraud, the big lie that fueled the insurrection in the first place spreading across the country and President Joe Biden is deep in a last-ditch attempt to pass legislation to protect the right to vote finally, finally admitting the only way forward may be to carve out the filibuster to pass voting rights and Mitch McConnell, who just yesterday threatened that if Democrats weakened the filibuster that he will personally guarantee the Senate will grind to a halt, today he is full of indignation over the President's speech.
SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): Yesterday, he shouted that if you disagree with him, you're George Wallace. George Wallace. If you don't pass the laws he wants, you're Bull Connor and if you oppose giving Democrats untrammeled one-party control of the country, well, you're Jefferson Davis. Twelve months ago, this President said disagreement must not lead to disunion. Ah, but yesterday, he invoked the bloody disunion of the Civil War — the Civil War — to demonize Americans who disagree with him. He compared — listen to this — a bipartisan majority of senators to literal traitors. How profoundly, profoundly unpresidential. Look, I've known, liked, and personally respected Joe Biden for many years. I did not recognize the man at the podium yesterday.
LEMON: Okay. So that was — you know, I find the Republicans do that a lot and conservative media do that a lot, what Mitch McConnell just did. He knows what he did, and he knows that he is — it's beyond being hyperbolic, he's actually just lying about what the President said cause that's not exactly what he said, right? That's what Mitch McConnell said. Not exactly what Biden said. Biden didn't demonize Americans who disagree with him, right? What he did was lay out a rhetorical choice. What he said was not that you are Bull Connor, that you are George Wallace, there's a difference. He said you're on the side, and there's a big difference there. There's a rhetorical choice. Do you side with those — side with those who fought for our most sacred right as Americans, the right to vote, or not that you are those people, do you side with those who fought against it?
JOE BIDEN [on 01/11/22]: I ask every elected official in America, how do you want to be remembered? At consequential moments in history, they present a choice. Do you want to be on the side of Dr. King or George Wallace? Do you want to be on the side of John Lewis or Bull Connor? Do you want to be on the side of Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis? This is the moment to decide, to defend our elections. To defend our democracy.
LEMON: All right, so you get the difference there, right? So, if you are — if you're on the side of — so if you want voting rights protection, that would be like saying you are Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. You are John Lewis, right? That's the opposite of — so he's saying, whose side are you on? As I have said before, if you were a supporter of this President, then you voted for the President — or the former President, Trump, then you voted for the President who what? The bigots supported. The Klan supported, right? The Proud Boys supported, the alt-right supported. Didn't mean that you were a member of that, but those who — that's who supported the former President. So, if you don't believe in the voting rights legislation, then Joe Biden is absolutely right. That's the side that you're on. People who have historically voted against voting rights protections for the majority and then he also said here untrammeled control over the country by Democrats or for one party he said, but what he's actually saying is that the majority — right — Democrats are in the majority now, and the majority of the country wants voting rights protection that that's not right because the minority wants something else. So, what he is actually espousing here is minority rule. Mitch McConnell, we see you, and you know better. Here's the President today responding to McConnell's criticism saying, “I like Mitch McConnell. He's a friend,” which may be the most Joe Biden thing that he could say, but just think about how much things have changed since the last time voting rights were before the Senate.
Okay, so this is our facts first part. This was back in 2016, the Senate voted 98 to zero to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act. Nineteen — in 2006, the Senate voted 98 to zero to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act, not so long ago. Every single senator voting in favor including Mitch McConnell, Richard Shelby, Susan Collins, James Inhofe, John Thune, John Cornyn, Lindsey Graham, Chuck Grassley, Richard Burr, and Lisa Murkowski. I will say it again, every single senator voting in favor of voting rights protection, the last time to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act in 2006. Mitch McConnell, Richard Shelby, Susan Collins, James Inhofe, John Thune, John Cornyn, Lindsey Graham, Chuck Schumer — excuse me, Chuck Grassley, Richard Burr, and Lisa Murkowski. What is so different now? T-r-u-m-p, f-e-a-r, the big l-i-e? What is so different now? Voting rights protections haven't changed. We haven't grown all of a sudden, a different group of ethnicities. Those are members of Congress who voted in favor of voting rights then and they are in the Senate now. That is Roy Blunt, John Bozeman, Shelby Moore, Caputo — Capito, excuse me, Jerry Moran, Roger Vic — Wicker, and Marsha Blackburn. Every one of those Republicans took a stand for voting rights more than 15 years ago. Where did they stand now? What's different? Ask ‘em. You put them in office. Ask them what is different now. I'll hold.
