Former CNN anchor Don Lemon expressed strong disapproval after witnessing a moment of civility between former President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump.
Lemon voiced his frustration on his YouTube channel, criticizing what he viewed as a concerning normalization of interactions between political adversaries that he believed posed a threat to Democracy.
He specifically called out Obama and Trump’s seemingly friendly rapport at Jimmy Carter’s funeral last week, where they were seen sharing laughs and conversation while Vice President Kamala Harris remained solemnly nearby.
‘You have to indicate to the American people that this is not normal,’ Lemon began, addressing Obama’s polite exchange with Trump. ‘Grinning with someone that you have called a fascist over the last couple of years and the last months. That’s not normal.’
He went on to accuse Obama of sending the wrong message at a critical time, criticizing him for engaging with a man whose supporters, Lemon alleged, have also perpetuated cruel insults against the former first lady.
‘Barack Obama is a classy guy,’ Lemon acknowledged, before unleashing his ire. ‘But these are the very same MAGA people who have called, and Donald Trump has helped promote, calling Michelle Obama a man.
‘I’m not smiling in your face if you’re calling my sister, my mother, or my wife a man. F*** you!
‘Folks are tired of the behavior being normalized. Civility does not mean befriending people or forgoing your morals and your principles and your character,’ he went on.
Lemon’s fury then extended to MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, who recently went to visit Trump at Mar-a-Lago and during a recent episode of Morning Joe, discussed the need for civility toward the Trump administration.
Citing commentary from guest Susan Glasser of The New Yorker, Lemon seized on her warning that excessive civility can embolden authoritarian tendencies, drawing a parallel to the early years of Vladimir Putin’s reign in Russia.
‘They’re trying to make people civil, right? And they’re having these fights over civility while the whole structural fabric and nature of the society was deteriorating,’ Lemon said, as be became visibly more irritated
‘You dumb f***ing idiots! You’ve been co-opted because you’re in a f***ing cult, and you don’t even realize it because you have stupid MAGA brain. How stupid and dumb are you?’
Lemon argued that showing tolerance does not mean sacrificing one’s principles.
‘Civility does not mean befriending people or forgoing your morals and your principles and your character,’ he said.
‘If someone disrespects my loved one, I don’t have to smile in their f***ing face! And they’re going to know it.’
Lemon highlighted the hypocrisy he perceives in leaders and media figures who are now call for unity after years of divisive rhetoric from Trump and his allies.
‘If Ted Cruz can’t stand up for his wife that Donald Trump calls ugly, then who is he going to stand up for?’
Lemon’s outrage wasn’t just personal – it was political.
He warned that gestures of civility, such as Obama’s polite engagement with Trump, could signal a broader acceptance of what he sees as dangerous ideologies.
‘If they’re going to acquiesce seemingly like that publicly, then what does that mean in the broader sense of the structure of the fabric of our society?’
His closing salvo left little doubt about his stance: ‘Now listen, you guys could be right. Maybe this is some master chess move, but I’m not buying it. And if it’s not, then shame on them for normalizing this behavior.’
