After spending their Monday handoff disgustingly injecting race into the Gabby Petito murder case, CNN hosts Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo finally addressed the Border Patrol “whipping” fake news scandal together Tuesday night. Of course, Lemon ignorantly suggested the images were an example of “systemic racism” in the department. And for his part, Cuomo defended his smears from the previous night when he asserted that a mounted Border Patrol agent belonged during slavery.
“Those images are hard to watch. But isn’t that – isn’t that the whole idea about anything that is systemic? That it’s baked into the system,” Lemon declared as they kicked off the handoff. And according to him, everything about the situation pointed to a problem with Border Patrol:
Isn’t that evidence that the system needs to be reformed so that people, the border agents aren't put in that position so that people coming into this country aren't put in that position, that there’s a humane way to enter the country without people having to possibly come in to contact with people on horses and so on and so forth.
“That's the definition of systemic, whatever it is. Systemic racism, systemic whatever. It's built into the system. The system is created or set up in a way that it isn't fair to anyone, really,” he sneered.
Cuomo agreed and went off on the need to go after the mounted units along the river that day. “[Y]ou use any part of your horse or your tack the wrong way to abuse somebody, you're going to be held to account,” he proclaimed without evidence something improper was done.
Several minutes later, he tried to walk back his Monday night smear by praising Customs and Border Protection and recalling his trips to the border. “The only thing I don't want to see is I don't want to see the CBP being demonized as a group. They don’t deserve that. I've been with them many times. They are better than most law enforcement,” he said.
But moments later, he tried to have it both ways by defending his smear, suggesting one agent looked as though he belonged on a plantation or hunting escaped slaves:
LEMON: Look, they’ve got a tough job. No one is denying that. But you cannot look away from those images. You can’t look at those--
CUOMO: No way. It's horrible.
LEMON: --images and go, “oh, that looks great.” It’s horrible.
CUOMO: And people want to say it's racist to say they harken to slavery. How do they not?!
LEMON: Yeah.
CUOMO: How do they not?! How do they not invoke that?
LEMON: It does. Just look at the images.
CUOMO: Of a century ago of inhumanity. That's why you don't want to— you don’t want it.
Well, Chris, people can look at that and not think “slavery” because they’re not mentally warped, not pushing a race-baiting agenda, and can understand the context. And it’s not “racist” of you to think that way when, in reality, it's just ridiculous (to put it nicely).
Lemon then continued on his attack against Republicans, arguing they were responsible for all of America’s immigration problems: “That folks who come here voluntarily, they want to come in and they want to close the door behind them.”
He also pretended as though America didn’t have a legal immigration system that the right demanded to be used properly. “You want people to be able to come into the country in an orderly, humane way. How’s that bad? That's not bad,” he scoffed at Republicans.
Living in an alternate reality. This is CNN.
These lies and smears against Border Patrol were made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Behr and BMW. Their contact information is linked so you can tell them about the biased news they fund.
The relevant portions of the transcript are below, click "expand" to read:
CNN’s Don Lemon Tonight
September 21, 2021
10:00:51 p.m. EasternDON LEMON: Those images are hard to watch. But isn’t that – isn’t that the whole idea about anything that is systemic? That it’s baked into the system. Isn’t that evidence that the system needs to be reformed so that people, the border agents aren't put in that position so that people coming into this country aren't put in that position, that there’s a humane way to enter the country without people having to possibly come in to contact with people on horses and so on and so forth.
That is the – that's the definition of systemic, whatever it is. Systemic racism, systemic whatever. It's built into the system. The system is created or set up in a way that it isn't fair to anyone, really.
CHRIS CUOMO: I agree. Now, look. We have a this and that. The “this” is, you use any part of your horse or your tack the wrong way to abuse somebody, you're going to be held to account. They'll do that investigation.
The “that” is, I'm telling you, Don, I believe that politicians on both sides do not want to fix this situation. It works too well for them broken. The right gets to demonize what I characterize as the brown menace. “Look at these people, coming here to take your job and ruin your culture and dilute the whiteness and create all these voters for the left.” It's too powerful for them.
(…)
10:04:49 p.m. Eastern
LEMON: I don't believe in that both sides in this one. I don't like to both sides things. I think the obstructionists to what has been happening with immigration overall, the obstructionists have been Republicans.
Okay, so, oh, you want too much. You want people to be able to come into the country in an orderly, humane way. How’s that bad? That's not bad. We spend money on so many other things.
(…)
10:06:50 p.m. Eastern
CUOMO: The only thing I don't want to see is I don't want to see the CBP being demonized as a group. They don’t deserve that. I've been with them many times. They are better than most law enforcement.
LEMON: They’ve got a tough job.
CUOMO: Some screw-up, they got to be punished.
LEMON: Look, they’ve got a tough job. No one is denying that. But you cannot look away from those images. You can’t look at those--
CUOMO: No way. It's horrible.
LEMON: --images and go, “oh, that looks great.” It’s horrible.
CUOMO: And people want to say it's racist to say they harken to slavery. How do they not?!
LEMON: Yeah.
CUOMO: How do they not?! How do they not invoke that?
LEMON: It does. Just look at the images.
CUOMO: Of a century ago of inhumanity. That's why you don't want to— you don’t want it.
LEMON: You know as the son of immigrants, that everybody wants to come into the country. Right? That folks who come here voluntarily, they want to come in and they want to close the door behind them. Right? They want to come in, and they don't want to let the other folks in. Is that fair?
CUOMO: No, it's not fair.
(…)
