Don Lemon Opens Up About CNN’s Coverage of Trump, The Host He Watches on Fox News, and Protesting Racial Injustice on The Interview
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Don Lemon isn’t worried about offending you. The CNN host, who commands a two-hour swath of the network’s evening news coverage, is the most prominent Black host on cable news. With that position, he told me in our conversation for Mediaite’s new podcast The Interview, comes a burden to speak out against racial injustice in the United States, “because who else is going to do it?”
Lemon has faced criticism for his strident commentary on inequality in America, as well as his labeling of President Donald Trump as a bigot and a racist. He’s learned to ignore it.
“I am much more vocal about speaking out, I don’t worry about offending people anymore,” he says. “We’re past the point of offense. If you don’t like it, well too bad. Let’s just deal with it.”
Lemon’s current commentary for CNN, which has grown significantly in viewership this year, is the product of a lengthy evolution. But Lemon says the most recent series of killings of Black men by police — all seen in graphic detail on our phones and televisions while trapped at home — has changed him. He was “heartened” by the national response to that violence, but has become “much more vocal” in speaking out against racism in his personal life and coverage on air.
In this week’s episode of The Interview, I spoke to Lemon about those protests, which have swept the country since the killing of George Floyd under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. We also discussed the Republican National Convention that Lemon has been covering nightly, whether CNN has become the anti-Trump network, what he feels when he sees his face appear on Fox News prime time, and when he thinks life during the coronavirus pandemic will get back to normal.
On the RNC, which he and fellow prime time anchor Chris Cuomo have been covering into the early hours of the morning for CNN, Lemon was surprised by the dark messaging coming from speakers:
They’re painting a dark picture of the country and they’re painting a picture of the president that’s not necessarily so. Basically, what they’re saying to us is don’t believe anything that you have seen or heard of this president. Don’t look at his tweets, don’t listen to his comments, don’t look at his actions, his policies. He’s really a great guy and he’s doing a great job and he’s taking care of the coronavirus. And there’s nothing to see here, move along, especially when it comes to Covid-19. And I mean, just objectively still, there is no truth to that.
I also asked Lemon about media coverage of Trump which, on CNN and elsewhere, is overwhelmingly negative. The CNN host himself has called Trump a racist and frequently condemned him for lying. I asked for his response to critics who accuse him of bias.
No. How is being factual bias? How is taking someone, how is taking evidence and someone’s own words and their own actions and their own policies, and just presenting it back to the public on television or whatever medium, whatever journalistic medium you happen to be in, how is that bias? By calling out the fact that the president calls certain countries shithole countries? Or the way he speaks to African-Americans. What happened with him and the Central Park Five. What happened with him and his father being sued for discrimination. How is that bias? That’s just the truth. Now, if the truth isn’t on your side, then what this administration will do is say that you’re biased and say that everything is negative because they don’t have the truth on their side.
When I asked what Lemon thinks when he’s the target of a montage on Fox News (he’s a recurring villain on Sean Hannity’s and Tucker Carlson’s shows), he laughed it off:
I look at it and go, wow, I looked chunky that day, or I was skinny that day, or my hair looks good that day, or I needed a haircut. Or wow, they put a lot of powder on me that night. It really doesn’t affect me. I expect it. I try not to traffic in the criticize the other network thing. I don’t really like to do that, but there are times when you have to, because this, I like to call it state run or state TV, they’ve become an arm of the Trump administration. So sometimes it’s impossible not to criticize them, but it doesn’t really bother me. I expect it. And I just, I laugh at it because usually they take clips out of context and out of order, and from years ago, in order to fit their narrative. And I just kind of laugh at it because usually it doesn’t really make sense.
Lemon said he used to watch Fox news “religiously” but has tuned out, arguing the network is stocked with Trump “apologists.”
I can’t watch it anymore because it’s embarrassing for them, and for the people who work there. And there are some really good people who work there and some of whom I know. But I can’t really watch it anymore. If there’s, maybe if there’s something that I want to see how they cover or every once in a while. But I used to watch Fox religiously because I thought they had some really great journalists and great programming, but I can’t watch anymore. It’s just infuriating, and I’m embarrassed for them.
He did have warm words for Neil Cavuto, his favorite anchor on the network, as well as newsmen Chris Wallace and Bret Baier.
The host that I really have hope for and I can watch now, quite honestly, is Neil Cavuto. I love watching Neil. I think he has a great style. I think he’s really good. I think he’s honest. And of course, Chris Wallace he’s really — he’s not really on Fox. I don’t really see him as a Fox News anchor, I just see him as a journalist who happens to work for Fox. And then I can watch Bret, usually when he does a straight newscast. But when he’s surrounded by the talking heads and the opinion folks, I have to turn the channel. But that’s really about it. From more from the morning show until Neil Cavuto comes on, there’s nothing there to really see. And then once Neil is gone, there’s nothing there to see until Neil comes back on the next day. And Bret.
We also spoke about this year’s wave of protests against racial inequality, which he covers on his new podcast Silence is Not an Option. His first guest, author Ibram X. Kendi has argued that the Trump administration inadvertently paved the way for a revolution against racism through the president’s rhetoric and policies. I asked Lemon what he thought of that argument.
Listen, Ibram is a smart man. I’ll let him speak for himself, but I’ll tell you what I think. I think that there are enough Americans out there who bristle when you hear “very fine people on both sides.” And I think that this president has made excuses, has condoned, has even given a platform to bigots and racists, in a way that is, to say the least, uncomfortable for most of America. And so inadvertently has this administration forced people into a corner where they have to pay more attention to the issue of race? Absolutely. Especially since we were in the middle of a pandemic when George Floyd happened. And had we done everything we were supposed to do at the time we were supposed to do it early on in 2020, when Covid first happened, perhaps we would not all be sitting at home on our couches watching television or with our laptops or our phones, watching someone die on television — from Ahmaud Arbery to George Floyd. It was in our faces. You could not avoid it. And what did that do? That’s forced us to look at the reality of police brutality and how African-Americans are often treated differently by authority figures in society.
Lemon has also been vocal in speaking out against the violence in Kenosha, Wisconsin this week that followed yet another horrific shooting caught on video. The CNN host stressed the difference between protestors and the rioters that take advantage of calls for racial justice.
The people who live there don’t want their homes and their property and their businesses burned down. The things that they’ve worked for all their lives. They don’t want it destroyed. And usually it’s the people who come in from outside who were doing the destroying. So they don’t want that. As I said last night on CNN, most people in this country and most African Americans want police officers. They probably want more police officers in their communities. They just don’t want to be abused and brutalized by police officers. They want police reform. They want better training. They want police to deescalate situations, but they don’t want to get rid of police. When you have an emergency at your house and you call 911, I want an officer to show up at my door. But I want the right officer to show up at my door.
And finally, I asked Lemon about the coronavirus pandemic, and when he thinks the CNN newsroom will be bustling again:
If we had more buy in from the American people, if the president of the United States had taken this seriously and told people the truth, instead of characterizing this as one political party out to get him, it is a hoax, then perhaps we would not be in the situation that we’re in right now. You would probably not be asking me if the CNN work environment is going to change, if it’s going to get back to normal, because we would probably be back to normal. And my evidence of that is look at all the other countries who have been affected by coronavirus. Pretty much all of them are back to normal now. Back to work, back to business. The only country that is not is America. And who is the leader of America? Donald Trump.
Don Lemon was the second guest on The Interview, following last week’s premiere episode with Tucker Carlson. That launch episode stoked much conversation — it was our most read story on the day it published. We thank you for listening, and for your support going forward.
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