Don Lemon Hammers Ben Ferguson: ‘I’m Smarter Than the Bullsh*t Answer You’re Giving Me!’
Things got pretty tense tonight on the CNN set between anchor Don Lemon and political commentator Ben Ferguson as they discussed NFL players protesting racial injustice during the national anthem.
During an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, President Donald Trump once again brought up the issue by stating that he feels the NFL should have suspended Colin Kaepernick when he first started demonstrating during the anthem last year. Trump claimed that would have stopped Kaepernick from protesting.
Ferguson got things going by calling Kaepernick a hypocrite because the ex-49er quarterback didn’t vote in the last election. Lemon attempted to shift the discussion to the reason the player was demonstrating to begin with while also noting that Kaepernick and other players aren’t protesting the flag or anthem. The CNN anchor also wondered why the president doesn’t try to just understand why the players are protesting and try to reach an understanding.
“I don’t know if you’re going to have a consensus as long as people simply see a lot of these players flat out disrespect for the flag,” Ferguson declared.
“It wasn’t seen that way until the president made it into an issue,” Lemon shot back.
The two then engaged in a heated back-and-forth, with Lemon saying that people — including Lemon himself — don’t pay attention to the national anthem or flag when watching football at a bar, and Ferguson countering that it’s different on the field. Lemon wanted to know why it’s different, leading Ferguson to claim players need to stand to “honor America.”
When Lemon countered that these are two American teams playing and not as if “we’re playing some international country,” Ferguson shouted that Lemon was “smarter than this.”
“Don’t tell me I’m smarter than this!” Lemon exclaimed. “Yes, I’m smarter than the bullshit answer you’re giving!”
After Ferguson yelled back that it wasn’t BS, Lemon once again went blue with his language by saying it was “bullshit.”
This continued for a little while longer with the two men not finding any type of consensus on the issue.
Watch the clip above, via CNN.
[image via screengrab]
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Follow Justin Baragona on Twitter: @justinbaragona
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