A ‘Furious’ Don Lemon ERUPTS on Rick Santorum After Chris Cuomo Interview: ‘I Apologize to the Viewers Who Were Insulted by It’

CNN’s Don Lemon erupted on network commentator Rick Santorum after his interview with Chris Cuomo attempting to address his remarks about Native Americans.

Santorum came under intense fire for these comments:

“You know, if you think of other countries like Italy and Greece and China and Turkey and places like that, they’ve all sort of changed over time. I mean, they’ve been there for millennia in many cases. And their culture has sort of evolved over time, but not us. We came here and created a blank slate. We birthed a nation from nothing. I mean, there was nothing here. I mean, yes, we have Native Americans, but candidly that — there isn’t much Native American culture in American culture. It was born of the people who came here, pursuing religious liberty to practice their faith.”

Many people called for CNN to fire Santorum including several Native American organizations. One said, “Rick Santorum is an unhinged and embarrassing racist who disgraces CNN and any other media company that provides him a platform.”

Cuomo questioned Santorum about his remarks Monday, but Lemon clearly was NOT happy with how it went.

I was furious watching that interview in my office. I cannot believe the first words out of his mouth weren’t ‘I’m sorry, I said something ignorant, I need to learn about the history of this country.’ No contrition, didn’t talk about the suffering that Native Americans have had to deal with in this country. It was… I mean, Rick Santorum, really?! Did he actually think it was a good idea for him to come on television and try to whitewash the whitewash that he whitewashed?! It was horrible and insulting! And I apologize to the viewers who were insulted by it. I was sitting in my office furious because he’s done it so many times! So many times!

He made it abundantly clear he was appalled by Santorum’s explanation for his comments.

“Jesus….” he remarked, with great exasperation.

Cuomo asked, “Why are things like that said? Why does he not apologize but say…”

“That’s not for me to answer. That’s for him to answer,” Lemon responded.

“But you have to, because otherwise you’re not going to have any place to put your pain,” Cuomo said.

They ended up getting into a bit of a back-and-forth, with Cuomo defending having Santorum on his show and Lemon strenuously objecting to Cuomo throwing out the word “censor” at one point.

At one point Lemon very noticeably reacted to someone in his ear and said, “Please stop yelling at me. I’m trying to complete my thought.”

They wrapped up with Lemon saying, “We’ve got to go because we are not going to agree.”

“I agree because I know where you’re coming from, and I love you, Don Lemon,” Cuomo said. “We agree on the problem. What’s the solution? We’ve got to figure it out.”

Lemon remarked, “I’ve got a solution, but, anyways, not my decision.”

You can watch above, via CNN.

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