Similar to how MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow has been treated like a journalist, the same goes for CNN Tonight host Don Lemon. Whether it’s his hatred for Trump supporters, an affinity for the left, or love for the Obamas, Lemon demonstrated that Sunday when he ended an opinion-filled commentary by bashing President Trump as dumber, less attractive, and racist compared to predecessor Barack Obama.
Instead of stopping there, he crudely took things a step further, boasting that Michelle Obama has been more attractive, educated, and successful in her life than current First Lady Melania Trump.
Lemon led into the insults by teeing up a clip of Obama giving best wishers to those who are affected by the coronavirus pandemic and suggesting that Trump start “thinking about” and showing “compassion” for the American people “instead of nursing [his] grudges.” Of course, Lemon’s implication was that Trump doesn’t care about people.
“Boy, oh, boy, that's leadership. That's compassion. It's too bad that President Trump can't show either,” Lemon swooned afterwards.
And then came the closing series of sarcastic jabs, offered with a gluttony of pauses, making faces, and sighs, going beyond his belief that Trump’s a racist:
By the way, what is it about President Obama that really gets under your skin? Is it because he's smarter than you? Better educated? Made it on his own, didn't need daddy's help, wife is more accomplished, better looking. I don't know, what is it? What is it about him? That he's a black man that's accomplished, became president. That he punked you on the whole birth certificate thing. What is it about him? Just wondering.
Lemon going after Trump was both predictable and petty (so the very things he accuses Trump of), but to question Melania’s brains, education, and level of success? That’s something far worse but not only was this okay with CNN, such hate is encouraged.
Rewinding to the top of the show, Lemon trumpeted the negatives: “Don't let anyone tell you that this is over, because it is not. The coronavirus is still killing thousands of Americans every single week. We still don't have the testing we need, and that is a disgrace.”
Lemon followed the CNN script to treat the sentiments of hope and optimism (along with the words themselves) like curse words while offering tiresome, weak, liberal media-wide platitudes about how they would love to seeing things reopened.
Along with that spin, Lemon did the bidding of the Chinese government by asserting that the federal government’s “mishandling” of the pandemic response helped led to nearly 70,000 dead Americans. Oh, and things would be peachy if Trump had listened to Obama or something (click “expand”):
So, I've said it before. Everybody wants the economy to --- to come back. Come on. People are hurting. Millions of jobs lost. Millions of people not sure where to get the money to pay the rent and put food on the table, but the President wants to be able to showcase an economic recovery. It's his ace in the hole with election day just six months away and he just can't seem to muster the kind of compassion that we need from our President, with more and more Americans getting sick, and more and more Americans dying. He is longing to get back to crowded campaign
(….)
He just wants to turn the page. To get you to think about something, anything, other than one of the worst crises in this nation's history. Look in the mirror, Mr. President, it's you and this is nothing but a shameless attempt to distract from your own administration's mishandling of a crisis that's cost over 67,000 American lives and by the way, you were warned about a pandemic like this by the Obama administration, yet at a time when we need leadership, when we need compassion, this is the crap you're that pedaling. Conspiracy theories? Like I said, it is shameful[.]
To see the relevant transcript from May 3’s CNN Tonight, click “expand.”
CNN Tonight
May 3, 2020
8:00 p.m. EasternDON LEMON: Here's our breaking news. There are now more than 1,150,000 cases of coronavirus in this country. More than 67,000 Americans have died and if you are having trouble wrapping your head around that number, well, I want you to think of this. More than 13,000 people died in just the past week. Just since last Sunday. So, don't let anyone tell you that this is over, because it is not. The coronavirus is still killing thousands of Americans every single week. We still don't have the testing we need, and that is a disgrace, quite --- quite frankly, nearly two months after the President promised anybody who needs a test gets a test and we're still a long way away from a vaccine, but governors across the country are under pressure to open up, and get their states back in business. More than 30 states have started reopening businesses and easing stay-at-home orders. More to come this week, but as more and more reopen without even having met the President's vague guidelines, I want you to listen to what the President said moments ago about the projected death toll.
BRET BAIER: I mean, I hear 80 to 90.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I used to say 65,000. And now I'm saying 80 or 90 and it goes up, and it goes up rapidly, but it's still going to be, no matter how you look at it, at the very lower end of the plane, if we did the shutdown
LEMON: But that is after Dr. Birx --- Dr. Deborah Birx --- claimed today that the White House had always projected up to 240,000 deaths from the coronavirus.
DR. DEBORAH BIRX: Our projections have always been between 100 and 240,000 American lives lost and that's with full mitigation, and us learning from each other of how to social distance.
LEMON: So that's what you call a contradiction. But this isn't the first time the President contradicted his own experts.
[OLD TRUMP CLIPS]
LEMON: Okay and let's not forget this stunning statement from the President's own son-in-law and his senior advisor, Jared Kushner, calling the administration's coronavirus response “a great success story.”
JARED KUSHNER: We're on the other side of the medical aspect of this and I think we have achieved all the different milestones that are needed. So, the government --- federal government --- rose to the challenge, and this is a great success story.
LEMON: This is no success story. Not while deaths are still climbing. But the President tonight is trying to pivot to reopening the economy.
TRUMP: I think we're going to have an incredible following year. We're going to go into a transition in the third quarter, and we're going to see things happening that look good. I really believe that. I have a --- a good feel for this stuff. I have done it for a long time.
LEMON: So, I've said it before. Everybody wants the economy to --- to come back. Come on. People are hurting. Millions of jobs lost. Millions of people not sure where to get the money to pay the rent and put food on the table, but the President wants to be able to showcase an economic recovery. It's his ace in the hole with election day just six months away and he just can't seem to muster the kind of compassion that we need from our President, with more and more Americans getting sick, and more and more Americans dying. He is longing to get back to crowded campaign rallies, alright? See where he says, "Hopefully our country will soon mend. We are all missing our wonderful rallies, and many other things." No, we're not. He's bragging about his golf courses and then there's this. One of the most transparent and ludicrous attempts at distraction that we have seen from a President who has got a --- a million of them. Retweeting an utterly absurd claim by a conspiracy theorist that the former President, Barack Obama, was behind what he calls “the Russia hoax.” This one is really a new low from a President who goes low all the time. It is obviously completely untrue. It's a disturbed fantasy and just as obviously, he doesn't really expect you to believe it. He just wants to turn the page. To get you to think about something, anything, other than one of the worst crises in this nation's history. Look in the mirror, Mr. President, it's you and this is nothing but a shameless attempt to distract from your own administration's mishandling of a crisis that's cost over 67,000 American lives and by the way, you were warned a about a pandemic like this by the Obama administration, yet at a time when we need leadership, when we need compassion, this is the crap you're that pedaling. Conspiracy theories? Like I said, it is shameful, but thank goodness there is a president, a real president that is showing compassion for his fellow Americans and it is not President Trump, it is former President George W. Bush with a message full of images of and concern for all Americans.
[GEORGE W. BUSH CLIP]
LEMON: And how does President Trump respond? Predictably he makes it all about him, about his wounded pride, his constant airing of grievances, tweeting that former President Bush didn't defend him on impeachment. The president's impeachment trial ended in his acquittal on February 5th. The next day, the first American died of the coronavirus. More than 67,000 Americans have died since then. How about thinking about them for a change instead of nursing your grudges? How about showing some compassion? Former President Bush did it. So did former President Barack Obama.
[OBAMA CLIP]
LEMON: Boy, oh, boy, that's leadership. That's compassion. It's too bad that President Trump can't show either. By the way, what is it about President Obama that really gets under your skin? Is it because he's smarter than you? Better educated? Made it on his own, didn't need daddy's help, wife is more accomplished, better looking. I don't know, what is it? What is it about him? That he's a black man that's accomplished, became president. That he punked you on the whole birth certificate thing. What is it about him? Just wondering.
