Former CNN host turned independent journalist Don Lemon unloaded on President Donald Trump’s recent xenophobic tirade against Somali immigrants while also offering up some criticism of mainstream media’s coverage of it all.
“It’s racist, it’s vulgar, it’s beneath the dignity of the White House, it is sexist,” Lemond said on Friday’s episode of his Substack show. “And quite frankly, it’s just gross and Donald Trump seems like a gross, bigoted, racist piece of shit.”
Lemon and his guest, White House press veteran Tommy Christopher, were discussing the lack of outward journalistic resistance against the president whenever he goes off on one of his offensive tangents.
“I think the journalists are in a really tough position right now,” Lemon said. “I think CNN has the best journalists in the world, but I think it’s a tough position right now because I think people at all the networks are concerned about how much they push back.”
Lemon added that journalists’ fear of jeopardizing their job security by calling out the president on his fiery remarks can affect the “quality and the content.”
“Why doesn’t it get called out? I think it would be called out even more if people weren’t afraid to criticize this president,” he said.
The president went on a series of anti-immigrant attacks this week after his administration halted all asylum decisions following the shooting of two National Guard soldiers in Washington, D.C. He has singled out Somali immigrants, whom he claimed “contribute nothing.” He has also said, “I don’t want them in our country.”
While the suspect in the shooting was from Afghanistan, the incident has fueled further offensive rhetoric against Somali refugees amid the Trump administration’s plans to launch a targeted immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota.
“Look how bad their nation is. It’s not even a nation. It’s just people walking around killing each other,” Trump said during Wednesday’s Oval Office press conference. “These Somalians have taken billions of dollars out of our country. They have destroyed Minnesota.
“We can go one way or the other, and we’re going to go the wrong way, if we keep taking in garbage into our country,” Trump said while launching a verbal attack against Somali refugee Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.)
On his show Friday, Lemon called Trump’s words “disqualifying to be a president of the United States.”
