‘You’re the Problem!’ CNN Panelists Get Heated Over Trump Naming Kennedy Center After Himself

CNN panelists Cari Champion and Brianna Lyman launched into a heated debate on Saturday over the importance of President Donald Trump adding his name to the Kennedy Center.

On CNN Saturday Table for Five, Lyman, elections correspondent for The Federalist, dismissed outrage over the Kennedy Center name change, arguing Democrats were fine with things being named after George Floyd in 2020 after he died in police custody (the officer was found guilty of his murder).

The board of the Kennedy Center, which Trump chairs, voted unanimously this week to add his name. The building now reads: “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing.”

Critics have pointed out that the name was established by federal law and would need an act of Congress to change.

Lyman also argued the Kennedy Center has been falling into “disrepair” and is being restored by Trump.

Podcaster Cari Champion pushed back on equating Floyd and Trump and had to stop Lyman multiple times from stepping back in as they argued back and forth about race and the standards of the current president.

“The fact that Trump is putting his name on every single thing and you want to normalize it like it’s normal tells me that you’re the problem and not the solution,” Champion told Lyman during their debate. “This man’s mental acuity is off. He clearly is unstable and no one’s talking about it.”

Check out the full exchange below:

BRIANNA LYMAN: You know, I, to be honest, I didn’t spend too much time looking at this because I didn t think it was that big of a deal given the grand scheme of things that happened this week. But I personally don’t care that much, but I do find it funny, Paul, that you care and that the Kennedys care because no one in your party cared in 2020 when you guys were changing names of hospitals, parks, schools, streets, everything in the name of George Floyd. And in fact, Wikipedia —

PAUL MECURIO: The only problem is I’m not a Democrat.

LYMAN: Wikipedia has an entire page called “list of name changes due to the George Floyd protests.” It is the longest Wikipedia page I’ve ever seen. So people who are up in arms about name changes now were mostly silent. The second point I’d make, I think it’s really disingenuous for the Kennedys and for anyone to sit here and pretend like they care so much about the Kennedy Center because I don’t know how many of you guys have been to the Kennedy Center prior to Donald Trump taking office. I was there in 2023. I wasn’t a VIP box. That should be pretty nice. The seats were stained. I literally sat down, I was like, is this wet? Is this fresh? The floors were dirty. This is a place that was decrepit. And all of this on top of people getting exorbitant salaries. So people who were running the Kennedy Center or who claimed to love and care about the Kennedy Center said nothing when it was falling into disrepair, and President Trump comes in, they are renovating, they cut salaries that were needlessly high, they’re bringing people to come and see the arts for once. It was not that lively of an institution under the Biden administration. So don’t pretend like you care about the Kennedy Center now when you were quiet when it was falling into disrepair.

CARI CHAMPION: Well, first thing, you refer to 2020 in the name of George Floyd. I think it wasn’t just in the name of George Floyd.

LYMAN: Well, that’s what the riots were about.

CHAMPION: I think that this country had a racial reckoning and they understood — Please let me finish because I let you finish — They had a racial reckoning and they understood that this country had done some things that were very unfair, especially to marginalized [people], especially to Black people, and they were giving tributes and statues to people who were slave owners who were considered heroes at one point.

LYMAN: Like Jefferson and Washington.

CHAMPION: Yeah, well, I can tell you what else he did. I can tell you what else Thomas Jefferson did.

LYMAN: Being a slave owner was not the only thing about Thomas Jefferson.

CHAMPION: I’m still talking. And the second thing is is that once they realized that these people, according to history, were not really the heroes that they had been portrayed as.

LYMAN: They absolutely were the heroes.

CHAMPION: They realize that they had [done] awful things to people who did not deserve it, who could not speak for themselves.

LYMAN: You’re speaking freely about people like Jefferson.

CHAMPION: I’m speaking freely because I’m a free Black woman and I’m allowed to speak freely.

LYMAN: Which is the First Amendment. Thank you Jefferson and Washington!

CHAMPION: The reality is that they may have over corrected but right now they’re over correcting in another way. The fact that Trump is putting his name on every single thing and you want to normalize it like it’s normal tells me that you’re the problem and not the solution. This man’s mental acuity is off. He clearly is unstable and no one’s talking about it. You have a walk of fame and you’re talking about other presidents in a derogatory way. This is the highest office in the land. And I’m just going to go back to the basis. What he’s done is disrespected it. And people such as yourself want to normalize that behavior. And what Maria Shriver was suggesting was, like, this isn’t funny anymore. Let’s take a look at what’s happening. You can’t normalize this behavior. This is one of many things that this president has done that should not be normalized. And if we keep continuing to look away, we will find ourselves in a state of disrepair that we cannot come back from.

Watch above via CNN.