(Headline USA) Ousted CNN host Don Lemon blasted former President Barack Obama for acting “buddy-buddy” with President-elect Donald Trump at former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral last week.
In a video posted on his YouTube channel, Lemon accused Obama of “yukking it up” with Trump and “chatting and giggling” with him “like kids on the playground” even though the two political figures have been rivals for years.
Lemon accused Trump of spreading conspiracy theories about Obama’s heritage, including an allegation that Obama was not actually born in the U.S.
“How could Barack Obama, the man who faced vicious, racist conspiracies for years because of Trump, act so buddy-buddy with him? Does he not remember birtherism?” Lemon complained.
The former TV anchor also blasted Obama for seemingly abandoning his own party’s narrative about Trump.
“Does he not remember how his entire political party has been calling the man a fascist, an autocrat, a threat to democracy for months, if not years?” Lemon said. “People could not believe what they were seeing. Had the Democratic Party lied to them? Had Kamala Harris and Joe Biden lied to them? Is this all just a game?”
This past election cycle, Obama himself repeatedly claimed Trump was a “threat” and even compared him to Adolf Hitler.
Even if Obama thought he was “just doing his duty” by being cordial to Trump, the images of Obama conversing and laughing with the president-elect were “risky” and “cringey,” Lemon claimed.
“Optics like this are things that Democrats have to consider going forward,” he said.
Trump was asked about his viral exchange with Obama over the weekend and admitted even he was surprised after watching clips of it.
“I said, ‘Boy, they look like two people that like each other.’ And we probably do,” he said. “We have a little different philosophies, right? But we probably do. I don’t know. We just got along.”
