CNN’s Don Lemon says Trump supporters are like ‘junkies’

CNN host Don Lemon sparked outrage Thursday night when he told a national audience that he had removed friends because they supported President Trump, likening them to drug addicts who have ‘hit rock bottom.’

“I had to get rid of a lot of people in my life because sometimes you have to let them go,” Lemon told colleague Chris Cuomo at the beginning of his CNN Tonight broadcast Thursday.

I think they have to hit rock bottom as addicts, right?

“And they have to want to get help, 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.”

The 54-year-old cable news anchor talked about growing up and living in various ‘red states’, where he became friends with people who now support the president.

‘Do you know what is sad? And I’ll be honest with you … I’ve had a lot of people that I love in my life, and yes, I come from a red state (Louisiana), I’ve lived in various red states, there are a lot of friends that I really had to get rid of because they are So absurd when it comes to this topic, ” Lemon said.

“They have all the talking points that they hear on state television and that they hear from this president, they repeat it and they are blinded by it.”

Lemon continued: ‘I had to get rid of them because they are too far away.

‘I try and I try and I try, they say something really stupid and then I’ll show them the science and give them the information, and they still repeat those talking points.’

He added: ‘It’s so sad. And I don’t know if after this I will ever be able to go back and be friends with those people because at a certain point you say they are too far away and I have to let them go.

And if you are willing to return, you are willing to live in reality, then I would welcome you with open arms.

“But I can’t do it, I can’t do it anymore.”

On Twitter, social media users criticized Lemon. One Twitter user commented: ‘Run like hell people! Never look back!

Another Twitter user wrote sarcastically: “What a big-hearted, open-minded kind Don Lemon is!”

Chris McIntire tweeted: “Those people you ‘let go’ are better off.”

Another Twitter user commented: ‘Great friend! You seriously doubt that these people were really friends!

Twitter user Evan Hanifee wrote: ‘I suppose in terms of diversity of thought.

“The irony is amazing.”

Another Twitter user commented, “I’m not crazy, everyone else is!”

In recent months, Lemon has sparked controversy over on-air critical comments about Trump supporters.

In August, Lemon said that the president’s supporters suffer from “cognitive dissonance” for being behind a “bad person” like Trump.

On the August 28 broadcast, Lemon aired to replace Cuomo.

The two men then spoke about Trump.

When Cuomo suggested to Lemon that Trump supporters acknowledged his flaws, but thought Joe Biden would be worse for the country as president, Lemon responded, ‘I think he’s leaving them alone.

“I don’t think it’s just because they think Joe Biden would be worse,” he said.

I think it’s because they like it, no [at] a certain level, on many levels. They like what it presents. They like lies, it should be done.

‘If you don’t like lies, then you are not a supporter. They like shiny objects.

‘They like racism. They like misogyny.

‘They like everything because if they didn’t, they wouldn’t support it.

Lemon continued: ‘So there is a disconnect or a cognitive dissonance where you have to believe that you made the right decision, because somehow, in your mind, you can’t admit that you made the wrong decision, that this is a problem. bad person, who is a liar, that you overlook all those things why?

He added: ‘You may not be delving deep enough into yourself. It’s not Donald Trump’s problem, it’s yours. ‘

In January, Lemon again drew criticism after he openly mocked and laughed at Trump supporters with two on-air guests.

The CNN host began to cry with laughter when his two guests, former Republican strategist Rick Wilson and New York Times columnist Wajahat Ali, suggested that Trump supporters were uneducated and unable to point to countries on a map.

The panel was discussing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s irritable interview with an NPR reporter on Ukraine and the ousted US ambassador, Marie Yovanovitch.

After the interview, the reporter said Pompeo cursed her and repeatedly ‘used the F word’ and asked, ‘Do you think Americans care about Ukraine?’

Lemon’s two guests criticized Pompeo’s response to the interview and put accents while poking fun at Trump and his supporters.

“(Pompeo) knows deep down in his heart that Donald Trump could not find Ukraine on a map if he had the letter ‘U’ and a picture of a real physical crane next to it,” Wilson said.

Know that this is an administration defined by the ignorance of the world. That’s in part him playing for his base and his audience, the credulous demonstration of the boomers’ boom that backs Donald Trump who wants to think that “Donald Trump is the smart one and all elitists are dumb!”

Ali also joined in saying: “You elitists with your geography and your maps and your spelling … your reading, your geography, knowing other countries.” Only the elitists know where Ukraine is ”.

Lemon laughed hysterically throughout the segment and, at one point, wiped the tears from his eyes.

‘That was a good one. I needed that, ‘Lemon said.

The backlash against Lemon and CNN was swift with Trump and his daughter Ivanka among those who attacked.

‘Don Lemon, the dumbest man on TV (with terrible viewership!),’ The president tweeted with a clip from the CNN segment.

Ivanka Trump also chimed in by tweeting: ‘You constantly make fun of half the country and then complain that it is divided. The arrogance, mocking accents and conceited ridicule of this nation’s “true elites” is disgusting.