Don Lemon Suggests Trump Supporters Need To Be 'Deprogrammed' Before Election
CNN host Don Lemon suggested early Friday morning that supporters of President Donald Trump need to be re-educated, or “deprogrammed,” as he put it, before they are allowed to vote.
Likening Trump’s base to a “cult,” the liberal cable news host unleashed on voters.
“If I had a real friend, who was involved in a cult, which I feel it is cultish behavior, I must try to help them,” Lemon said on his program.
“And you only go so far until you say, until you reach bottom, I cannot deal with it. It’s like an addiction.
“Until you reach bottom and you want help, I can’t deal with it,” Lemon added.
He further claimed he was once a young Republican, but shifted course.
“Here’s how I feel about this. I don’t care about whether you’re right or left. I’ve been right. I was a young, Republican. And left. I am an independent now,” he claimed.
“And I am an independent thinker, and I believe in reality,” said the man who once speculated that a missing Malaysian commercial airliner might have been sucked into a popup Indian Ocean black hole in 2014.
“I believe in facts. I believe one plus one equals two. And so, when I am talking to people who, not are smart but, who think they are smart. There’s a difference between being smart and thinking you’re smart. Then, I have to — I got to let you go,” Lemon said.
The CNN New Year’s Eve party correspondent then hit Trump voters with an insinuation that they need an intervention when it comes to Trump, who Lemon said lies to voters.
“[Trump] lies to people and they believe it,” he said.
“And so, what is that? Cultish behavior. And I think a lot of people need to be deprogrammed, right now, before they cast their next ballots,” Lemon added.
Lemon has focused in recent years about attacking the president and his supporters.
In January, Lemon laughed hysterically on his program as his guests insulted the intelligence of the president’s supporters.
CNN contributor Wajahat Ali and former GOP strategist Rick Wilson, a NeverTrump Lincoln Project activist, both mocked Trump and his supporters while using fake Southern accents.
Lemon laughed hysterically throughout the moment on his show.
The segment drew the ire of Trump.
“Don Lemon, the dumbest man on television (with terrible ratings!),” Trump tweeted, also sharing a clip of the segment.
Don Lemon, the dumbest man on television (with terrible ratings!). https://t.co/iQXCc7lvCt
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 28, 2020
Lemon later apologized for the segment that mocked Trump supporters after facing a backlash.
#BREAKING: @DonLemon addressing the now-viral Saturday @CNNTonight segment mocking and showing such venom toward Trump supporters. Not surprisingly, Lemon deflected: “I don’t believe in belittling people….In the moment…I didn’t catch everything that was said.” pic.twitter.com/oI4eNz7rkR
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 29, 2020
“During an interview on Saturday night, one of my guests said something that made me laugh,” Lemon said. “And while in the moment I found that 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.”
Lemon further claimed he doesn’t “believe in belittling people.”
“It’s personally important for me to address this,” Lemon said.
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