The View Debates Don Lemon’s Take on Ma’Khia Bryant Police Shooting: He’s ‘Wrong About This’
The View’s discussion on the fatal police shooting of Ma’Khia Bryant wound up strongly revolving around the thoughts of CNN’s Don Lemon.
Whoopi Goldberg led the show on Thursday by airing the body cam footage of Bryant’s shooting, but she followed it with Lemon’s cautious response to the chaotic incident. Joy Behar confirmed that she spoke to Lemon about how the case connects to the killing of George Floyd, and she said she was having a hard time assessing the situation.
“I really can’t figure it out anymore,” she said. “Even if the cop had to do it, there’s something wrong with it. I can’t explain it any better than that. [Lemon] and I were going back and forth last night because he has a completely different view of this. All I can say is we keep talking about this over and over and kids still keep getting shot. It’s like the gun issue in this country. People keep getting shot and nothing gets done about it. It’s a very frustrating conversation to have.”
Sunny Hostin was the next to offer her take, and she prefaced by saying she considers Lemon “a dear friend,” but “Don is wrong here.”
“Why is deadly force always the first order of business and especially the first order of business when it comes to black and brown people in this country?” Hostin asked. “We shouldn’t live in a country quite frankly where it’s acceptable for the police to shoot a 16-year-old four times in the chest over a fight. It goes from zero to execution very, very quickly when there is a black or brown person involved.”
Hostin acknowledged that Bryant was filmed holding a knife, but she asked why Bryant was shot by the police when that didn’t happen with white suspects like Kyle Rittenhouse, Robert Aaron Long, and Dylann Roof.
Meghan McCain followed up by saying she agreed with Lemon because it looked like Bryant was about to stab another young woman before she was shot. McCain acknowledged it was a difficult assessment to make though, saying “If I’m wrong, this will be adjudicated in court and hopefully we’ll find out the truth.”
Sara Haines kept the conversation going when the show came back from break, and she argued that while its true African Americans are treated differently by the police, the cops who were called to the Bryant scene had to make a split-second decision in the middle of a chaotic situation. Goldberg agreed Haines was “probably right,” but she acknowledged the points of her co-hosts as she spoke of the unknowns surrounding the case. She also defended Lebron James’ controversial “you’re next” tweet by insisting that he was making the point that the police will need to be held accountable for Bryant.
Watch above, via ABC.
