On Tuesday's CNN Tonight, while discussing Kanye West's recent alliance with Republican President Donald Trump, CNN host Don Lemon twice claimed without citing any evidence that Trump supporters in the past had "called him the N-word" when he criticized singer Taylor Swift and President George W. Bush.
Additionally, CNN contributors Bakari Sellers and Tara Setmayer inserted racially tinged comments into the discussion as Setmayer called West a "token negro," and Sellers derided him as "what happens when negroes don't read."
After noting that West is having a meeting with President Trump to discuss criminal justice reform, he played a clip of West interrupting Taylor Swift on stage at an awards ceremony from 2009 before the CNN host then added: "So that moment right there and the 'George Bush doesn't care about black people,' that's when the same people who are praising him now were calling him the N-word."
A bit later, after introducing his guests, Lemon repeated his claim that "people were calling him the N-word back then."
When Sellers got his turn to speak, the liberal CNN contributor complained that West is not informed enough to advocate politically for African-Americans, noting that he once had to ask what STEM programs were, and then added that "Kanye West is what happens when negroes don't read," leading to laughter from Lemon and Setmayer.
Never Trump Republican Setmayer soon piled on: "What's funny to me is to watch all these white people behind Donald Trump clapping away at the name, Kanye West, when it wasn't that long ago when Kanye West said that George W. Bush doesn't like black people..."
She added: "But now, all of a sudden, because he's put on a MAGA hat, and he's an attention whore like the President, he's all of a sudden now the model spokesperson. He's the token negro of the Trump administration."
