Don Lemon, Marc Lamont Hill Clash with GOP Strategist over Whether Obama ‘Played the Race Card’

Don Lemon led an intense panel discussion Monday night over President Obama‘s comments about race and whether, as Republican strategist Alice Stewart argued, it was Obama “playing the race card” or if he was just “stating the obvious” about how there are just some white people and black people who make their judgments of the president’s performance based on his skin color.

Stewart argued the real issue is that Obama’s a “blind president” on the important issues, but both Lemon and Hill adamantly tried getting her to concede that at least some of the opposition to the president is racial in nature. Hill dismissed the idea that any mention of race automatically means someone is “playing the race card,” but Stewart insisted it’s used all the time to “stop any kind of person that has opposition to the president.”

Lemon said there are definitely black people who think Obama can do no wrong, just as there are white people who think the opposite, but Stewart continued to insist, at the utter surprise of both Lemon and Hill, that all of the resentment of Obama is because of his policies, adding that “he refuses to acknowledge” the racial gains the country’s made.

Watch the video below, via CNN:

[photo via screengrab]

— —

Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com