Don Lemon Compares Trump to Hitler, Gets Called Out by Fellow CNN Host
The conversation between CNN hosts Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo got heated when Cuomo slammed Lemon for comparing President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler.
“You are now taking a guy who says things you don’t like and comparing him to a genocidal maniac,” Cuomo said on June 18.
The clash between the usually amicable Cuomo and Lemon started when Lemon said, “Think about the despicable people we’ve had in history. OK, now I’m going to use an extreme example. Think about Hitler. Think about any of those people.”
Lemon asked Cuomo if he would have given a platform to those “despicable” people in history.
Cuomo stopped Lemon mid-sentence and said, “I think that the example matters, and that’s a very extreme example. Rhetoric you don’t like, could it be a slippery slope towards violence? Maybe, maybe not.”
Lemon went on to mention the “Central Park Five” saying that Trump’s rhetoric could be dangerous for African-Americans like himself.
“For people of color in this country,” Lemon said, “it is a life or death issue.”
“This is not standard, this is not normal,” he concluded.
Cuomo fired back at his colleague saying, “Comparing anything to an extreme like a Hitler weakens the argument.”
“It’s creating a false standard. A guy who says things I don’t like, that’s abusive of the truth, who can be obnoxious for effect, and pander to a group of people in this country is not necessarily a step away from a genocidal maniac,” Cuomo said.
Lemon told Cuomo that “brainwashing” happens when truths are mixed with falsity.
“It starts with little lies. They become bigger lies,” he said.
Cuomo pushed back:
“That’s how a lot of cons work. But I’m just saying, a con… something that isn’t true, versus a cult, versus a genocidal maniac,” he said. “I just think you should go one step at a time.”
While Hitler’s Nazis killed an estimated 6 million Jews in Europe, Trump has long been praised by Jewish state of Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu honored Trump for acknowledging that Israel has annexed the Golan Heights by naming a Jewish settlement after him.
The settlement was named, “Trump Heights.”
Additionally, Trump has Jewish grandchildren. His daughter, Ivanka, converted to Judaism to marry Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law. The couple now has three children.
Before their child was born, according to the Times of Israel, Trump told an audience at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, “I love Israel … My daughter, Ivanka, is about to have a beautiful Jewish baby.”
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