CNN’s Don Lemon says Donald Trump called him racist
News anchor and host Don Lemon attends the Ellie Awards 2018 on March 13, 2018 in New York City. (Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images for The Association of Magazine Media)
CNN news anchor Don Lemon has said that Donald Trump once said he was racist.
The journalist revealed that Trump had made the comments when he interviewed the current US president back in 2011.
“The last time I interviewed Donald Trump, before he ran for office, was the night that Osama Bin Laden was killed,” Lemon explained to CNN’s evening newscast The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.
“It was before he was killed and we had a row about the birther issue.”
“He vowed that he would never do an interview with me because he said I was racist, because I challenged him on an in-factual statement, a lie.”
Lemon continued: “[He said] I was racist because of the way that I challenged him.
“Much in the way that he thought that I can’t be unbiased about an issue concerning race, like Judge Curiel, because I’m African-American. So he accused me of being racist.”
“He vowed that he would never do an interview with me because he said I was racist, because I challenged him on an in-factual statement, a lie.”
Trump recently tweeted about Lemon after he interviewed basketball player LeBron James.
In the interview, Lemon asked James what he would say to Trump if he were sat opposite him, to which James: “I would never sit across from him,” before adding, “I’d sit across from Barack though.”
Taking to Twitter, Trump wrote: “Lebron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon. He made Lebron look smart, which isn’t easy to do.”
Lemon subsequently responded in a news segment for CNN, saying: “I would just to like note that referring to African-Americans as dumb, remember this is America, referring to African-Americans as dumb is one of the oldest canards of America’s racist past and present, that black people are of inferior intelligence.”
Lebron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon. He made Lebron look smart, which isn’t easy to do. I like Mike!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 4, 2018
In May, Lemon slammed Roseanne Barr as a “bigot” and a “racist,” saying that viewers of her TV show “bought into her bigotry.”
Lemon made the comments live on air in the hours after ABC cancelled the reboot of Barr’s TV comedy series Roseanne in response to her making an “abhorrent” and “repugnant” statement, which likened Barack Obama’s former aide to a Planet of The Apes character.
“This isn’t about stifling. If you’re a conservative and you’re supporting someone who is a bigot, who is a racist — and let’s not get it twisted,” the 52-year-old journalist said. “And let’s not soften the words here and say, oh, racially tinged.
“This is racist. She is racist. There’s no other way to put it. The president traffics in racism as well. And I have said that I believe he is a racist because he traffics in the same thing.”
