Don Lemon Brutally Outlines Trump’s Failures During Coronavirus: ‘America Needs Leadership’

CNN’s Don Lemon opened the 10 PM hour of his show Thursday with a clinical yet brutal takedown of what he argued was President Donald Trump’s clearly failed leadership in the run-up and during the current coronavirus pandemic that, according to the White House’s task force, will cost between 100k and 240k American lives at best.

Lemon’s presentation was deadly serious to the point of seething, and not in a performative manner that one typically sees on cable news opinion programming. It wasn’t just President Trump that drew Lemon’s ire. State governors also drew criticism, as did Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and White House economic advisor Peter Navarro.

“So, with thousands and thousands of Americans at risk, this president, this administration playing the blame game tonight, blaming the states and their governors,” Lemon noted. He then cited examples of Trump blaming states for not being prepared with their own stockpiles,  and Navarro curiously blaming the supply chain.

“Blaming is easy. Leading is hard,” Lemon followed. “The hard truth is being president in a crisis means you need to take responsibility.”

He then noted that “with governors across the country pleading for life-saving supplies, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner says this” running a clip from earlier in the day in which Kushner said
“I got a call from the president. He told me he was hearing from friends of his in New York that the New York public hospital system was running low on critical supply.”

Lemon was aghast, “He was hearing from friends in New York? That’s what it takes to get action from this president? A tip from a friend that things are actually bad right now? That is a perfect example of a complete lack of seriousness from this administration, from this president. We’ve all heard New York’s governor Andrew Cuomo day after day on live TV begging for supplies.”

For anyone frustrated, nay, fed up with they see as the ignorance and incompetence coming from elected officials, Lemon hit all the notes in this infuriating essay. After playing a clip from January in which Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross suggested that the coronavirus would accelerate a return of jobs to North America, Lemon exasperated  “Accelerate the return of Jobs, huh? How’s that working out?”

“A complete lack of seriousness. From the beginning. Catastrophic unemployment numbers, the economy on life support, doctors, nurses, hospitals begging for equipment to save our lives and their own.”

Lemon finished with the dead-serious note, “America needs leadership.”

Watch above via CNN.