Don Lemon Opens Revamped Show With Call for ‘Redemption With Accountability’: We’ve ‘Got to Stop Cancelling People for Accusations’

CNN’s Don Lemon opened the first installment of Don Lemon Tonight with a message about “redemption with accountability” and saying people shouldn’t be “cancelling” others over accusations.

The show kicked off with Chris Cuomo teasing Lemon a bit about his cryptic announcement and eventual reveal of the new title over the weekend.

Lemon told viewers his show’s mission statement remains the same: “to have the kinds of conversations America needs if we’re going to move ahead as a country.”

“We’re going to continue to keep calling out the lies, we’re going to do it in a way on this show that it is interesting, as it has been from the very beginning,” he said.

Lemon made a point of talking about holding people accountable, but “with grace,” and then elaborated with a clear allusion to “cancel culture”:

We need to hold people accountable, but with grace. That’s really important to me. You want to know why? As someone who really came from — I shouldn’t say nothing, but I didn’t have a silver spoon in my mouth… If you believe America is for everyone, then you certainly believe that America is about redemption. America is about redemption and it is not just about cancelling people. We’ve got to stop that. We’ve got to stop going back into people’s pasts years and decades ago and trying to cancel them for things.

“Yes, we want to hold them accountable,” Lemon said. “We’ve got to stop cancelling people for accusations! Accusations are just an accusation. It’s innocent until proven guilty in this country. It’s about redemption with accountability.”

He went on to tear into the “clown show” of an audit in Arizona, commending the “few truth-tellers” among Republicans in the state.

In a video Lemon posted to Twitter before the show, he said he was going to talk about “cancel culture” and asked, “Has it gone too far? Isn’t America supposed to be about redemption, but with accountability?”

You can watch above, via CNN.