Over the weekend, Pennsylvania Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro was the target of a possible politically motived arson attack at the Governor’s mansion by a man with a history of mental illness and animosity towards both parties. But minutes after the news broke on Monday, disgraced former CNN host Don Lemon took to his podcast to blame President Trump, MAGA, and Republicans in general for the attack and every bad act in America; proclaiming: “You are the purveyors of hate!”
Despite the news being very fresh, Lemon decried that “MAGA is silent this morning. The White House is silent this morning. Donald Trump is silent this morning.” Meanwhile, Trump did call the man responsible for the attack a “whack job.”
Lemon seemed to catch himself as he launched into a hyperbolic statement suggesting the arson attack was worse than the assassination attempts on Trump. “They don't have a thing to say about one of the most horrific acts of political terrorism this country has seen in some time,” he said.
He never gave an explanation for what he meant by “some time” and “most horrific,” since the first attempt on Trump was less than a year old and saw the President shot in the head, a supporter killed, and several injured. Fortunately, no one at the Governor’s Mansion was injured and the attacker never found Shapiro or his family.
“Where are our priorities? Where are the priorities today? Is it in a rocket? Is it in stopping stuff like this?” Lemon huffed about the rest of the media coverage of the morning.
Lemon then blamed Trump for all the hate in the world and for the attack:
Because there's a reason that there's so much hate going around. There's a reason that there's so much anti-Semitism and so much racism going around, and there's a lot of it. There's a look – and it's not just, you know, one political party and all that stuff, but you can place it at the feet of one person who didn't start this but certainly exacerbates it and foments hate and bigotry.
Towards the end of the segment, several minutes later, Lemon admitted that Trump had only just heard about the attack and proceeded to bloviate about a purported double standard in outrage from the right:
So, I was just listening to the thing and Donald Trump said he had only just heard of the attack. And look, he will probably respond I'm sure, hopefully he will respond in depth, but I don't see many people, many Republicans or anyone speaking out against this. And I just know if had it been the other way around, it would have been people in the MAGA folks would have been going crazy. ‘I can't believe Kamala Harris, she's condoning this. Why aren't Democrats doing whatever.’
So, I think Republicans speak out, say something. Not just like a measly little statement. ‘Have my, uh, have, have uh have Barbara draw up a statement for me uh to this and whatever, and have him put it out on social media.’ No, let's say something. Don't just draw up the statement.
Lemon followed up by dropping all semblance of his earlier pretext that there was violence on both sides of the aisle and declared: “[I]t certainly does happen more on one side.”
“Hate. January 6. The racism. The bigotry. The anti-Semitism. The transphobia. The homophobia. It certainly does happen on one side more than the other,” he chided. “So, yeah, does it happen on the Democratic side? Yeah, but not to the extent that it happens on the Republican side, especially with MAGA.”
Of course, the liberal hack was omitting both assassination attempts on Trump, the assassination attempt of Justice Brett Kavanaugh and his family, the assassination attempt against Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin (NY), the attempt on Representative Steve Scalise (R-LA) and the rest of the Republican Congressional Baseball Team, the BLM riots of 2020, the acts of terrorism against Tesla, the anti-Semitism on college campuses, and all the other attacks on Republicans on the local and state levels.
“Let's just be honest,” he crowed as he proceeded to lie about how “hatred and bigotry” were the “motor” and “axel” which “makes the MAGA wheel spin.”
Lemon wanted to hold Republicans responsible for every act of violence by demanding: “Say something Republicans about the hate every single time it happens. Every single time it happens.”
“And don't try to spin it as to that Democrats always do it, only do it, and Republicans, somehow MAGA is not doing it when you are the purveyors of hate,” he wrapped out his hate-fueled screed.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
The Don Lemon Show
April 14, 2025DON LEMON: So, MAGA is silent this morning. The White House is silent this morning. Donald Trump is silent this morning. They don't have a thing to say about one of the most horrific acts of political terrorism this country has seen in some time.
This is awful. I don't know if you paid attention to it. As I said, I just couldn't watch after a while. I had to stop, especially after this happened. I'm like, oh my God, what is going on in the world? And why isn't someone condemning this from the highest heights in the White House? Right? Why isn't someone condemning this? One of the most horrific acts of political terrorism in this country has seen in some time.
Over the weekend, authorities say a man scaled an iron security fence in the middle of the night, everyone, eluded police and broke into the Pennsylvania governor's mansion. Where he set a massive fire, and then he attempted to murder Josh Shapiro with a hammer.
Now, you guys remember when that happened to Nancy Pelosi's husband, right? And then the right made fun of it. Remember that? And then they tried to pretend it was some sort of love affair, some hookup gone wrong. All kinds of conspiracy theories. And they did it not just on the fringe media, they did it in the mainstream media as well. The big right-wing news organizations were laughing and joking about it.
“The silence speaks volumes.” You're right about that, Marlene Prosser, it does.
And so now you have this. Now imagine, if Kamala Harris was in office and something like this happened and there was no statement or nothing, and you didn't hear anything, people weren't condemning it. Imagine what would happen. What would folks be saying about this? What would they be saying about this, had this happened and then a Democrat didn't say anything?
Mr. Shapiro, Governor Shapiro and his family fortunately escaped just in the nick of time. They're okay. Cody Balmer, who was arrested later in the day, faces charges including attempted homicide, terrorism, aggravated arson, and aggravated assault. During a police interview, authorities said that Cody Balmer told them, after he was taken into custody, that he would have beaten Shapiro with a small sledgehammer if he would have found him. That's what the documents say.
So this is what I'm saying to you guys. This is, this is what I mean about what is going on in the country. Where are our priorities? Where are the priorities today? Is it in a rocket? Is it in stopping stuff like this? Because there's a reason that there's so much hate going around. There's a reason that there's so much anti-Semitism and so much racism going around, and there's a lot of it. There's a look – and it's not just, you know, one political party and all that stuff, but you can place it at the feet of one person who didn't start this but certainly exacerbates it and foments hate and bigotry.
(…)
LEMON: So, I was just listening to the thing and Donald Trump said he had only just heard of the attack. And look, he will probably respond I'm sure, hopefully he will respond in depth, but I don't see many people, many Republicans or anyone speaking out against this. And I just know if had it been the other way around, it would have been people in the MAGA folks would have been going crazy. ‘I can't believe Kamala Harris, she's condoning this. Why aren't Democrats doing whatever.’
So, I think Republicans speak out, say something. Not just like a measly little statement. ‘Have my, uh, have, have uh have Barbara draw up a statement for me uh to this and whatever, and have him put it out on social media.’ No, let's say something. Don't just draw up the statement.
And the Governor is right, this is happening far too often. Now, I say it is not exclusive to one political party, but it certainly is – it certainly does happen more on one side. Hate. January 6. The racism. The bigotry. The anti-Semitism. The transphobia. The homophobia. It certainly does happen on one side more than the other. And they don't speak out about it enough.
So, yeah, does it happen on the Democratic side? Yeah, but not to the extent that it happens on the Republican side, especially with MAGA. Let's just be honest. It seems to be part of the, I mean, that's the, not the cog, that's a thing that makes the MAGA wheel spin. That's the motor. That's the axle. Is hatred and bigotry.
So, let's hope someone responds. Governor, I'm with you, my Jewish brothers and sisters over this Passover, and over the weekend, I'm with you as well. I wanna see more people start speaking out more about it. Say something, Donald Trump, more than just I haven't heard about it, and some wrote statement. Say something Republicans about the hate every single time it happens. Every single time it happens. And don't try to spin it as to that Democrats always do it, only do it, and Republicans, somehow MAGA is not doing it when you are the purveyors of hate.
