Steve Cortes Confronts Don Lemon For ‘Embarrassing’ Remarks on Kanye West: ‘Could You Be Any More Condescending?’

On Thursday night, CNN pro-Trump commentator Steve Cortes took Don Lemon to task for his coverage of Kanye West and his visit to the White House.

Earlier in the day, Lemon slammed Kanye West’s meeting with President Donald Trump, calling it a “minstrel show” and insisted that West’s dead mother is “rolling in her grave.”

Well, Cortes let him have it.

“You know, Don, you said this meeting was embarrassing. I think quite frankly what’s embarrassing is the condescension you’ve shown to Kanye West, someone who I think is a brave, independent thinker, a creative genius,” Cortes told Lemon. “Does he speak in a different vernacular? Of course he does like a lot of artists. It’s one I don’t always understand but I do understand he’s a great thinker. And for you and a lot of guests to dismiss him as a “token negro” and question his mental stability when you’re not doctors, you haven’t examined him, I think is really unfortunate. And it’s an example unfortunately that is all too common on the left which is liberal- when a minority doesn’t tow the party line, they are vilified and dismissed.”

Lemon countered by noting that the person who called Kanye West a “token negro” for the Trump administration, CNN commentator Tara Setmayer, is a “conservative.”

“Well, not in my mind she’s not a conservative,” Cortes responded.

Cortes then called out Lemon for “editorializing” his chyrons and by referring to Kanye West’s remarks a “rant.”

Lemon asked Cortes how it’s “disparaging” to focus on Kanye West’s mental health when he himself has talked about it, but Cortes spun it back towards Lemon’s criticisms of the meeting.

“You said earlier today this was a minstrel show,” Cortes said. “I mean, could you be any more condescending to this man?”

“I’m just telling the truth. I’m not being condescending to him, I’m telling the truth,” Lemon responded. “And if you ask African Americans around the country, they will tell you the exact same thing. That’s what it looked like today, sadly. And I’m saying this… not out of animus for Kanye West but because I feel sorry for him. And I think he needs to take care of himself.”

“He doesn’t need your pity, Don,” Cortes shot back.

Lemon also took offense to Cortes after he grouped the CNN host with the #Resistance.

Watch the clip above, via CNN.