Was CNN watching the same trial the rest of America was? Apparently not, because the “Facts First” network abandoned truth for their politically convenient narrative on Friday, calling the Kyle Rittenhouse case an ultimate example of “white vigilantism.”
Primetime host Don Lemon was guest on CNN’s New Day, where he began his commentary smearing the judge in Rittenhouse’s case as acting like the defendant’s racist grandpa. Yes, really.
He first took issue with Judge Bruce Schroeder yelling at the prosecutor for trying to admit material that had been previously barred from the courtroom. Multiple lawyers and legal analysts on television this week admitted this rebuke was warranted. Still Lemon tried to pretend he knew better, and this “problematic,” “biased” behavior was evidence of the breakdown of our justice system.
Furthermore, Lemon breathlessly suggested the judge was racist because he joked about the Long Beach supply chain issues delaying their lunches. The humorless media automatically thinks a joke is racist if they don’t get it:
....This judge yelling at a prosecutor, anyone in the courtroom, treating anyone the way he treats I think is problematic. And I don't think it is normal. And people -- you can decide or not if you think he's biased, most of the people I've seen on television who analyze, does some analysis of courtrooms, seems to think there is a bias towards the defense usually this judge is very pro-prosecution and now he's sort of -- seems to be very pro-defense, treating Kyle Rittenhouse as if he's his grandson. Just berating the prosecution. No one needs to be berated like that in the courtroom. I understand that judges, attorneys, prosecutors, they have very tough jobs. But does that need to happen?
Does he need to make jokes about Asian food, not arriving, you know, because it is on a boat on Long Beach in California? Whether he was being, you know, racist towards Asians or insensitive or not, he said in one breath that it shouldn't be political and wouldn't allow a question about a witness' bias because a witness works for a far right wing publication, but that shouldn't be about politics, but then he's making jokes about the supply chain, it does not compute. I think people see what is happening.
So this is the perfect case, this one, and the one that is happening in Georgia, these are perfect cases to bring life to what happens in our criminal justice system in the court system, because everybody, most of these people, they think it is normal. I've been dressed down by a judge before, I've been whatever -- well maybe it shouldn't be that way. Maybe this is evidence that we need to reform our court system and our criminal justice system...
The trio then began to tear into Rittenhouse himself for being white and not getting killed by rioters. “Imagine if Kyle Rittenhouse was an 18 or 17-year-old black kid -- with a gun. How would people feel, how would the judge treat him, how would pundits think about this case?” Lemon griped.
He sneered Rittenhouse was no “choir boy,” but an outside agitator who didn’t belong there:
What about the people on the right who are making Kyle Rittenhouse out to be a choir boy because he went across state lines and inserted himself into a situation where he had nothing to do with, was carrying a gun that he wasn't supposed to carry because he was too young, it was illegal for him to carry that gun and he wanted to do it because he was cool, if a black kid did that, killed two people and injured another person, how would America feel about that, regardless of what the defense -- once you're in the courtroom and the legal system, what Kyle Rittenhouse says to the defense or whatever, that's a whole other thing. Think about public opinion and public perception, and what would be allowed in our society I think it would be a completely different feeling about the people on television talking about this and analyzing the judge’s antics in a legal situation.
Actually Rittenhouse's family lived in Kenosha and he testified he was there to help clean graffiti and help a friend protect a business from rioters.
Journalists like Lemon obsess over Rittenhouse “crossing state lines” where his family lived in Kenosha, while they have no problem with COVID-positive illegal immigrants entering the country and then getting paid millions of taxpayer dollars for breaking the law.
Co-host Brianna Keilar then ramped the hate-talk up a notch, equating Rittenhouse to the defendants in the Ahmaud Arbery killing. The two cases couldn’t be more different. Yet she actually proclaimed, “There is this theme of white wanna-be vigilantism that I think encapsulates both of these trials.” Keilar prodded Lemon to affirm her nasty, baseless claim America applauded white vigilantism: “[W]hat do you think about just this idea that this is something people do, that in some places this is still okay?”
Lemon agreed Rittenhouse was an example of “ultimate entitlement” and “vigilantism.” He moaned that if black people had taken the law into their hands and taken to the streets, America would be up in arms. Lemon seems to have amnesia because he and his network spent all last year defending and sanitizing Antifa and Black Lives Matter rioting as justifiable. Seattle’s CHOP zone was “peaceful protesting” according to CNN and MSNBC [click "expand"]:
It is the same idea as I was saying about the judge, this is okay because people are used to it. This is the ultimate entitlement, that, again, you can insert yourself into a situation with a gun that you're not supposed to be carrying, kill two people, injure, and it is -- you're made to be a hero by the public. You -- you see someone jogging down the street, and you take it into your hands, you think it is your responsibility to stop that person, when you're not even sure if they are committing a crime because, what, it is your street, it is your town, it is your country. It is the ultimate degree of entitlement, when people believe that this is how they're supposed to be.
What the right is saying about Kyle Rittenhouse -- is that well the government didn’t do its job so it took a 17 year old kid to come in and do what’s right. That's vigilantism. That's not what -- we're not supposed to be vigilantes. We're not supposed to take justice into our own hands. Imagine if every single person in America did that. Imagine if you called for a black men or black folks to be armed and go out in the streets and, you know, do what they think, justice, take it back, remember what they did to you and slavery and whatever, go and take things, imagine if people were condoning that or doing that. Would there be a different perception in this country about who should and shouldn't carry guns? Would our gun laws be different? I certainly think so.
So there is a double standard. But there is an ultimate degree of entitlement. This is what I'm supposed to do because this belongs to me, meaning the street, this town and this country. I think it is tough for people to hear that, it is the absolute truth.
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Read the transcript below:
New Day
11/12/21
DON LEMON: This judge yelling at a prosecutor, anyone in the courtroom, treating anyone the way he treats I think is problematic. And I don't think it is normal. And people -- you can decide or not if you think he's biased, most of the people I've seen on television who analyze, does some analysis of courtrooms, seems to think there is a bias towards the defense, usually this judge is very pro prosecution and now he's sort of -- seems to be very pro defense, treating Kyle Rittenhouse as if he's his grandson. Just berating the prosecution. No one needs to be berated like that in the courtroom. I understand that judges, attorneys, prosecutors, they have very tough jobs. But does that need to happen?
Does he need to make jokes about Asian food, not arriving, you know, because it is on a boat on Long Beach in California? Whether he was being, you know, racist towards Asians or insensitive or not, he said in one breath that it shouldn't be political and wouldn't allow a question about a witness' bias because a witness works for a far right wing publication, but that shouldn't be about politics, but then he's making jokes about the supply chain, it does not compute. I think people see what is happening.
So this is the perfect case, this one, and the one that is happening in Georgia, these are perfect cases to bring life to what happens in our criminal justice system in the court system, because everybody, most of these people, they think it is normal. I've been dressed down by a judge before, I've been whatever -- well maybe it shouldn't be that way. Maybe this is evidence that we need to reform our court system and our criminal justice system, just want to leave people with a picture here. Imagine if Kyle Rittenhouse was an 18 or 17-year-old black kid --
JOHN BERMAN: That's a different issue.
LEMON: With a gun. How would people feel, how would the judge treat him, how would pundits think about this case? What about the people on the right who are making Kyle Rittenhouse out to be a choir boy because he went across state lines and inserted himself into a situation where he had nothing to do with, was carrying a gun that he wasn't supposed to carry because he was too young, it was illegal for him to carry that gun and he wanted to do it because he was cool, if a black kid did that, killed two people and injured another person, how would America feel about that, regardless of what the defense -- once you're in the courtroom and the legal system, what Kyle Rittenhouse says to the defense or whatever, that's a whole other thing. Think about public opinion and public perception, and what would be allowed in our society I think it would be a completely different feeling about the people on television talking about this and analyzing the judge’s antics in a legal situation.
When we're talking about the role of race, not only in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial, but also in the trial of the men who shot -- pursued and shot Ahmaud Arbery.
LEMON: Murdered.
KEILAR: One of them killed Ahmaud Arbery. There is this theme of white wanna-be vigilanteism that I think encapsulates both of these trials and I wonder what you think about, look, laws aside, how is the defense doing aside, what do you think about just this idea that this is something people do, that in some places this is still okay?
LEMON: It is the same idea as I was saying about the judge, this is okay because people are used to it. This is the ultimate entitlement, that, again, you can insert yourself into a situation with a gun that you're not supposed to be carrying, kill two people, injure, and it is -- you're made to be a hero by the public. You -- you see someone jogging down the street, and you take it into your hands, you think it is your responsibility to stop that person, when you're not even sure if they are committing a crime because, what, it is your street, it is your town, it is your country. It is the ultimate degree of entitlement, when people believe that this is how they're supposed to be.
What the right is saying about Kyle Rittenhouse -- is that well the government didn’t do its job so it took a 17 year old kid to come in and do what’s right. That's vigilanteism. That's not what -- we're not supposed to be vigilantes. We're not supposed to take justice into our own hands. Imagine if every single person in America did that. Imagine if you called for a black men or black folks to be armed and go out in the streets and, you know, do what they think, justice, take it back, remember what they did to you and slavery and whatever, go and take things, imagine if people were condoning that or doing that. Would there be a different perception in this country about who should and shouldn't carry guns? Would our gun laws be different? I certainly think so.
So there is a double standard. But there is an ultimate degree of entitlement. This is what I'm supposed to do because this belongs to me, meaning the street, this town and this country. I think it is tough for people to hear that, it is the absolute truth.
