CNN anchor Don Lemon came under fire on Tuesday for laughing hysterically when one of his guests insulted 65 million Trump supporters.
Frequent guest Rick Wilson ridiculed Trump supporters during a segment that aired on Saturday. Wilson spoke in a comically bad Southern drawl as he called Trump supporters “rubes” – implying that all Southerners are dumb country bumpkins.
But since so few viewers watch CNN, the incident didn’t garner much attention until President Trump tweeted about it on Tuesday.
“Don Lemon, the dumbest man on television (with terrible ratings!)” Trump tweeted along with a link to a Daily Caller post that included a video clip of Lemon’s hysterics.
America, this is what CNN thinks of you…
pic.twitter.com/puuVjRLlw1— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) January 28, 2020
The backlash was unlike any Lemon has ever seen or heard before. That’s why Lemon apologized with his tail between his legs during a segment on Tuesday night.
According to Lemon, he was not laughing at half the country (which he complains is already divided). Lemon claims he was laughing at the “joke” told by Wilson.
The openly homosexual news anchor insisted that he doesn’t “belittle” people for “who they are”, “what they believe” or “where they’re from.”
One social media user joked that CNN reminded Lemon that his ratings are already dreadful. After all, CNN does have bills to pay – and many of their advertisers are Trump supporters.
“One final note that I have for you because this is personally important to me to address this,” Lemon said with a somber expression on his face.
“Ask anyone who knows me, they’ll tell you, I don’t believe in belittling people. Belittling anyone for who they are, what they believe or where they’re from. During an interview on Saturday night, one of my guests said something that made me laugh. And while in the moment I found the joke humorous, and I didn’t catch everything that was said. Just to make this perfectly clear – I was laughing at the joke and not at any group of people.”
