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Former CNN anchor Don Lemon seethed that Dems’ inflammatory remarks should not be equated to President Trump’s own fiery rhetoric after the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting – saying the comparison “drives me f–king crazy!”
In an episode of “The Don Lemon Show” Monday, Lemon nodded to pols and journos who have been questioning whether the left needs to tone down their rhetoric after the third attempt on the president’s life over the weekend.
“Words have consequences. Rhetoric really matters and I believe that genuinely across the board, and that’s not a one-sided principle, it applies to everyone,” Lemon said.
“But I cannot say with a straight face, and nobody can say that with a straight face…that Democrats saying Trump is terrible for this country is the same thing as Donald Trump standing in front of a crowd on Jan. 6 and telling them to march to the Capitol and fight like hell.”
“I cannot say those things are equivalent because they are not. I am so sick of false equivalents. It drives me f–king crazy!” Lemon exclaimed, jumping up in his seat. “Because that is bulls–t!”
Lemon seemingly combined two statements from Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021, speech, in which he said: “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”
Later in the speech, Trump said: “And we fight. We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
Trump is currently suing the BBC for an eye-watering $10 billion for editing those two statements together in a 2024 documentary, accusing the British media giant of defamation.
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“There are so many examples of Donald Trump saying horrible things and doing horrible things,” Lemon continued. “The person who has done the most to poison the political climate in this country is the one man sitting in the Oval Office, and I will say that very clearly and emphatically, directly.”
Cole Tomas Allen, the 31-year-old California teacher and engineer accused of targeting top White House officials at the Washington Hilton Saturday, made a defiant court appearance Monday. He faces life in prison for three counts, including attempting to assassinate the president.
In a chilling manifesto first reported by The Post, the accused gunman called himself the “Friendly Federal Assassin” and revealed he was hell-bent on killing Trump “Administration officials (not including [FBI Director Kash] Patel)… prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest.”
“I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes,” Allen wrote, apparently referring to the president.
He also mentioned hot-button political issues like the Trump administration’s strikes on Venezuelan drug boats and the detention of illegal migrants.
Lemon said that some of Allen’s complaints are “real grievances that millions of people share.”
“But the specific language in that letter, the words he used, that language comes from a specific ecosystem, and that ecosystem was not built by Democrats,” the journo added.
“I want to be very clear here…What Cole Allen did was wrong. You do not pick up weapons and walk toward a room full of people,” Lemon said. “I don’t care how angry you are.”
Allen was subdued and arrested after exchanging gunfire with agents during the Saturday event — injuring one Secret Service officer, who was briefly hospitalized and “saved by the fact” that he was wearing a bulletproof vest, according to Trump.
Lemon added, “And, I don’t want Donald Trump dead, okay? I do not want Donald Trump dead, let me say that. Not because I have any warmth towards him. I really don’t. I don’t. I think he’s a repulsive human being.”
Lemon – who was fired from CNN in 2023 after 17 years with the network – argued that killing Trump would make him a “martyr,” and he would rather see the president “beaten by the voters.”
English (US)