CNN’s Don Lemon on Thursday compared President Donald Trump’s supporters to drug addicts for daring to challenge leftist dogma about the coronavirus pandemic.
During an exchange with CNN’s Chris Cuomo, Lemon also claimed to have had conservative friends at one time, but he said he “had to get rid” of them because they were “too far gone.”
The far-left host accused his former friends of saying “really stupid” things in defense of Trump, adding that he cut them off because he could no longer tolerate their COVID skepticism.
“You know what the sad thing is? And I’ll be honest with you … I’ve had many people who I love in my life. And yeah, I come from a red state, I’ve lived in several red states,” Lemon said.
“There are a lot of friends who I’ve had to really get rid of because they are so nonsensical when it comes to this issue,” he added.
The discussion came as left-wing media wage a coordinated effort to disseminate claims of a new coronavirus spike, saying that Trump’s rallies have been a major source for spreading it.
However, many jaded media-consumers remain skeptical of the over-hyped fearmongering, just days before the Nov. 3 election.
A recent CNN report claiming that 82% of Trump rallies resulted in a “significant” COVID spike was exposed as having deceptively cherry-picked data from previously debunked talking points by the radical-left Center for American Progress.
Lemon, meanwhile, rationalized his decision insulate himself from those who challenged his myopic viewpoints by insisting that they were the ones with blinders on.
“They have every single talking point that they hear on state TV and that they hear from this president, they repeat it and they’re blinded by it,” Lemon told Cuomo.
Despite their willingness to accept the CNN host as a friend and continue to engage him in meaningful discussion, Lemon claimed that these friends merely parroted the party line.
“I had to get rid of them because they’re too far gone,” he said. “I try and I try and I try, they say something really stupid and then I’ll show them the science and I’ll give them the information, and they still repeat those talking points.”
Lemon said the optimism that Trump supporters maintained, in contrast to the “dark, dark winter” projected by Democrat nominee Joe Biden, necessitated something like a drug intervention.
“I had to get rid of a lot of people in my life because sometimes you’ve just got to let them go,” he said.
“I think they have to hit rock bottom like an addict, right? And they have to want to get help,” he continued. “They have to want to know the truth, they have to want to live in reality, they have to want to be responsible not only for other people’s lives but for their lives.”
Lemons’ comments echo earlier statements he’s made insulting Trump supporters. Earlier this year, he laughed for an extended period of time while panelist Rick Wilson of the Lincoln Project slammed Trump supporters as a “credulous boomer rube demo.”
Trump, who has long dismissed CNN as “fake news,” has been especially brutal in his criticism of Lemon, once calling him “the dumbest man on television” due to his inflammatory, knee-jerk attacks.
CNN’s Don Lemon, the dumbest man on television, insinuated last night while asking a debate “question” that I was a racist, when in fact I am “the least racist person in the world.” Perhaps someone should explain to Don that he is supposed to be neutral, unbiased & fair,…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 31, 2019
Regarding the virus—which he himself contracted last month—Trump has encouraged Americans to keep things in perspective, noting that it poses minimal danger to those without underlying risk factors such as age or prior health conditions.
While many who test positive remain asymptomatic, more than 90 percent of those who are hospitalized make a full recovery.
Headline USA’s Ben Sellers contributed to this report.
