Don Lemon Blasts Obama’s ‘Cringy’ Cordial Chat with Trump at Carter Funeral: ‘You Can’t Memory Hole Comparing Someone to Hitler’
Don Lemon criticized former President Barack Obama’s cordial chat with President-elect Donald Trump at Jimmy Carter’s funeral on Thursday as “cringy.”
The country’s 44th and 45th presidents set aside their years-long adversarial relationship to sit for a civil conversation at the Washington National Cathedral. A lip reader told The New York Post the conversation was more business than casual.
Lemon said on his YouTube page later in the day he could not have cared less about what the two discussed. The former CNN host worried about that the “optics” of the moment and cautioned Obama risked helping conservatives as Democrats just spent an election cycle calling Trump “Hitler.”
He made note of the fact that the moment between Obama and Trump confused many and noted Karen Pence did not acknowledge the president-elect’s presence. Lemon said:
People had many, many questions. How could Barack Obama, the man who faced vicious, racist conspiracies for years because of Trump act so buddy-buddy with him? Does he not remember birtherism? Does he not remember how for years Trump lied about how he was secretly born in Africa? Does he not remember how Trump suggested that he was secretly a Muslim who was sympathetic to terrorist groups and terrorist causes? Perhaps more critically, does he not remember how his entire political party has been calling the man a fascist, an autocrat, a threat to democracy for months if not years? People could not believe what they were seeing. Had the Democratic Party lied to them? Had Kamala Harris and Joe Biden lied to them?
Lemon noted many on the left might have felt as though their leaders believed any of their own rhetoric based on Obama’s interaction. He concluded:
Look, in reality, Barack Obama was just doing his duty. The former president had died and he inevitably was going to have to brush shoulders with Trump there in the same presidential club. Right. What was the alternative? Not to watch Jimmy Carter be laid to rest? Now, I think he had no choice, but laughing at Trump’s jokes on camera? It was risky, kind of cringy. Optics like this are things that Democrats have to consider going forward. They spent years, if not months, if not years labeling Trump a political aberration, someone cruel, if not evil, outside the norm. Their voters may feel lied to if they appear to embrace him now. You can’t just memory hole comparing someone to Hitler. So, Democrats, you’ve got to keep in mind ahead of Trump’s inauguration and frankly, for the next four years, like what that looks like, your behavior around the man will matter. It does matter. You can’t allow Karen Pence to present as a more steadfast defender of democracy, a more courageous critic of Trump, than yourselves. Democrats, your outdated impulse to prioritize good relationships with your conservative colleagues at all costs. It’s got to end.
Watch above via The Don Lemon Show.
