CNN’s Don Lemon And Crew Gush To Sculptor About MLK Statue, Slam Megyn Kelly And Others Who Mocked As ‘Trolls’

CNN anchor Don Lemon dismissed those who mocked a newly-unveiled sculpture honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King — like SiriusXM host Megyn Kelly — as “trolls,” and gushed about the work as they interviewed the artist,  Hank Willis Thomas.

The sculpture — called “The Embrace” and modeled after an iconic photo of the couple taken after Dr. King won the Nobel Peace Prize — was unveiled this weekend in Boston Common and drew crass mockery from Kelly and others, including Seneca Scott, a cousin of the late Mrs. King.

On Friday morning’s edition of CNN This Morning, Lemon introduced the interview segment by playing some of the mockery, then dismissing the “trolls”:

DON LEMON: The art piece designed by conceptual artist Hank Willis Thomas, only features a couple’s arms during the embrace and not their heads, which has sparked a mixed reaction.

SENECA SCOTT: It’s not the missing heads. That’s the atrocity other people glom onto that. It’s a stump that looks like a penis. That’s a joke.

MEGYN KELLY: Look at this, YouTubers. I’m sorry, but that’s it. That looks like a giant penis right there. I’m sorry. It does.

MARTIN LUTHER KING III: I think the artist did a great job. I’m. I’m. I’m satisfied. But it represents something that brings people together.

DON LEMON: All right. Not sure we played some of that because it’s just obviously trolls.

During the interview, Lemon and Harlow expressed admiration for the sculpture, and Thomas responded to the criticism with muted outrage:

HANK WILLIS THOMAS: I care, because, I mean, how could you not think about Dr. King and Mrs. King’s legacy and not care, you know? But also when you put art in the world, you can’t control what people see. You know, I think about the Rorschach test, the inkblot test. You know, what you see says a lot about what you…

POPPY HARLOW: About you?

HANK WILLIS THOMAS: See about the world. And so I, the work is meant to be gone into, it’s a call to action. You go in and be in the heart of their embrace. So what people see online I can’t really control.

POPPY HARLOW: I love this! Because it makes you think more deeply, and I love, so much focus is in on Dr. King and not on her. Right. And it’s a, it’s a couple and the importance of that support and power. But also, you say there are so many monuments of the Kings that we don’t see them as real people.

Watch above via CNN This Morning.