During the handoff between CNN’s Cuomo Prime Time and CNN Tonight on Monday, Don Lemon unleashed his fury as he chastised President Trump and his supporters as “people who will lie, steal, and cheat, lie to their mother.” The tirade came after the President questioned his intelligence on Friday, liberal journalists called Trump racist because of it, and fellow CNN host Chris Cuomo egged him on.
After letting Lemon slam President Trump as “the real dummy” between him and LeBron James, Cuomo boosted his guest’s ego as he prepared to read him something. “Now you often on your show point out material misstatements and lies by the President and his administration and he hates it. So I prepared something for you tonight,” Cuomo gushed.
The quote was from Vice President Mike Pence’s “Moral Case for Removing the President,” which he wrote in the ‘90s about Bill Clinton. “For the nation to move on, the President must move out,” Cuomo read. “Now he is apparently immune to hypocrisy. But what does that tell you about what you're up against?”
The bitter Lemon obliged and proceeded to tear into the President and his supporters collectively. “That was then, this is now. We're up against tribalism. We're up against people who will lie, steal, and cheat, lie to their mother, lie to themselves about what's right of this country, about truth and facts,” he spat.
His vitriol grew more potent as he lambasted Trump supporters for getting in bed with a racist all for lower taxes:
If they will ignore any misgiving, any terrible misdeed, any awful saying they will just ignore it for their own political purpose. They will ignore the bigotry and the pettiness and the childishness about what Donald Trump said about me and LeBron James and others just because they want to gain some sort of political clout or they want a few more dollars in tax money. At what cost?
Unironically, Lemon knocked the President by saying “if you can't say anything good don't say anything at all.” Too bad he didn’t take his own advice. Talk about hypocrisy.
Speaking of being unable to say anything nice about someone; at the top of his show following the handoff, Lemon attacked a Media Research Center study that found 90 percent of broadcast network evening coverage of the President was negative.
“It always gets me when people say, ‘There's 90 percent. This study shows that 90 percent of the reports about this president are negative,’” he opined in a mocking voice. “But they don't talk about the things that come out of his mouth and the policies he proposes. And what he does and says to people.”
Lemon emphatically argued that reporting negatively was really the only way the media could cover the President. “How are we as media to report positively on something that’s negative,” he shouted. “If that is indeed true, then you need to counterbalance that and weight it against what comes out of this President's mouth and what he's doing.” Clearly, Lemon didn’t do his homework or else he would know exactly how we conduct our studies.
As MRC Research Director Rich Noyes explained in the study, “our analysis of ‘spin’ tracks only explicitly positive and negative statements from reporters and non-partisan sources; it excludes neutral statements as well as statements from partisans such as Trump praising himself or Democrats criticizing him.” It’s the evaluative statements from what’s supposed to be a neutral press that’s counted.
“When this President — when this man was on the campaign trail, we tried with every bone in our being to be objective and report on him in a fair equitable manner. And then when he became President of the United States, the same thing,” he huffed to Cuomo. Of course, as the MRC reported during the election, that’s not true. This is CNN.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CNN's Cuomo Prime Time / CNN Tonight
August 6, 2018
9:55 p.m. EasternCHRIS CUOMO: Don Lemon is going to join me right now. As you know, CNN Tonight follows Cuomo Prime Time. And as you all know, Don and I are friends. But objectively, D. Lemon you have a following and you have fans for a reason. And it ain't because they think you’re dumb. And you showed just how subtle and deft your intelligence is this weekend. Now, here's what the President tweeted. “Lebron James was just interview by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon. He made LeBron look smart, which isn't easy to do. I like Mike.” He’s talking about Michael Jordan. This was Don’s clever response the next morning “Who’s the real Dummy? A man who puts kids in classrooms or one who puts kid cages? #BeBest.” Of course, refers to First Lady's campaign for better character. What was the point you want people to take from this?
DON LEMON: Who's the real dummy? I want people to take the truth from this.
(…)
CUOMO: Now you often on your show point out material misstatements and lies by the President and his administration and he hates it. So I prepared something for you tonight.
LEMON: Okay.
CUOMO: Listen to what was written about the president lying and the damage. And I'll tell you who wrote it afterwards.
“If you and I fall into bad moral habits we can harm our families, our employers and our friends. The president of the United States can incinerate the planet. Seriously, the very idea that we ought to have at or less than the same moral demands placed on the chief executive that we place on our next door neighbor is ludicrous and dangerous.” And then he went on for this, “For those around the president our leaders must either act to restore the luster and dignity of the institution of the presidency or we can be certain that this is only the beginning of an even more difficult time for our land. For the nation to move on, the President must out.”
You know who said that?
LEMON: Who?
CUOMO: Vice President Mike Pence wrote it in the '90s about Bill Clinton. Now he is apparently immune to hypocrisy. But what does that tell you about what you're up against?
LEMON: That was then, this is now. We're up against tribalism. We're up against people who will lie, steal, and cheat, lie to their mother, lie to themselves about what's right of this country, about truth and facts. If they will ignore any misgiving, any terrible misdeed, any awful saying they will just ignore it for their own political purpose. They will ignore the bigotry and the pettiness and the childishness about what Donald Trump said about me and LeBron James and others just because they want to gain some sort of political clout or they want a few more dollars in tax money. At what cost?
(…)
10:00:55 p.m. Eastern
LEMON: Listen, you know, Chris, we don’t take this lightly. When this president—When this man was on the campaign trail, we tried with every bone in our being to be objective and report on him in a fair equitable manner. And then when he became President of the United States, the same thing.
It always gets me when people say, “There's 90 percent. This study shows that 90 percent of the reports about this president are negative.” But they don't talk about the things that come out of his mouth and the policies he proposes. And what he does and says to people.
How are we as media to report positively on something that’s negative?! The President called countries s-hole counties. “Oh well, that's great.” We don't do that. You don’t call counties s-hole counties. You don't do things like that. You don't talk about people in the way this president does at least if you're a president of the United States you’re not supposed to. So that whole thing about the media is biased and that 90 percent of what we report about Donald Trump is negative; if that is indeed true, then you need to counterbalance that and weight it against what comes out of this President's mouth and what he's doing.
(…)
