Don Lemon Laughs Out Loud At Woman Who Couldn’t Define ‘Woke’ In Viral Video
CNN anchor Don Lemon laughed out loud at a conservative pundit who stalled out when she was asked to define “woke” in a viral video clip.
Conservative columnist Bethany Mandel gained instant viral infamy on Tuesday when she appeared on The Hill’s Rising, and co-host Briahna Joy Gray asked her to define the term she kept using:
BETHANY MANDEL: Americans consider themselves very liberal, and probably fewer of them consider themselves to be woke. And so, you know, when we talk about traditional…
BRIAHNA JOY GRAY: Well what does that mean to you? Would you mind defining woke? Because it’s come up a couple of times. I just want to make sure we’re on the same page.
BETHANY MANDEL: So, I mean, woke is sort of the idea that, um… (long pause) This is going to be one of those moments that goes viral. I mean, woke is something that’s very hard to define. And we’ve spent an entire chapter defining it. It is sort of the understanding that we need to re, totally re-imagine and re, and redo society in order to create hierarchies of oppression. Um… (long pause) Sorry, I. It’s hard to explain in a 15 seconds soundbite.
On Friday morning’s edition of CNN This Morning, Lemon and guest Alyssah Farah Griffin laughed out loud as they played the clip of Mandel’s brain freeze — but then Lemon extended some grace over the lapse:
DON LEMON: (LAUGHS) That was (LAUGHS) that was… Alyssa Farah Griffin joins us now, CNN political commentator, former Trump White House communications director. Good morning. We’ve all been on live television. You lose your train of thought, you know, someone tries to help you out, usually in the moment, but it happens. But it’s been. That was a tough moment, don’t you think?
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: Well, and it sounds like it’s kind of the core of one of the arguments that she’s making in a book that she writes. So “Woke” is, it’s kind of become remember that the dress where it’s like you either saw it in blue or white, it’s, it means something to certain people. There’s a Merriam-Webster’s definition of it, which is “being in touch with… And caring about social justice causes and actively involved in them.”
But to the other half of the country, let’s call it that. It means something completely different. I do see why it has been a valuable and energizing rallying cry for the conservative base, because I think how it’s generally interpreted as to mean, you know, it’s more of a fear of cancel culture, I would put it. I would say that’s how a lot of I think conservatives see it as if I say something that’s even slightly off the woke mob is going to come and get me. However, it’s now turned into something where everything’s woke, banks are woke, ESG is woke…
DON LEMON: I disagree with you. I don’t think it’s a blue and white dress. I think it’s. Listen, we know it came in, Michael Brown, which I covered in Ferguson. I think it’s I know it’s something that has been co-opted by conservatives and people who are running for office because it gets a very big response from people like CRT, etc., etc., etc..
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: Yeah, that’s that’s definitely right. And I’m not sure that I think that words become devoid of meaning if you use them for everything. And this has become such a catch all term.
I think that we are much better as Republicans when we’re leaning into something like cancel culture. It’s it’s tangible. People get it. If I say one word that’s unpopular or I misuse the proper phrase, even if my heart was in the right place, your career could be over the next day. That, I think, is a valid fight that resonates with people.
The wokeism it is. It’s co-opting a term from another community and trying to make it a catch all phrase for things that bother you about the direction the culture is going in.
Watch above via CNN This Morning.
