Don Lemon accuses congressman of using African-American woman as 'prop' at Cohen hearing
On CNN Tonight, Don Lemon called out Republican congressman Mark Meadows of North Carolina for bringing a black Trump administration official, Lynne Patton, to the Michael Cohen hearing before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday as an example of why Donald Trump’s not racist. During the hearing, Cohen gave multiple instances of racism on the part of Trump, saying he’s “much worse in private.” But Meadows argued that the presence of Patton proved otherwise, and Lemon took issue with Meadows using Patton as a “prop.”
“He brought a special guest, Lynne Patton, who is a Trump administration official, as if she were a live prop, trotting her out in an attempt to prove that this president couldn’t possibly be racist.” Lemon said, later adding, “What he’s essentially saying is this president can’t be racist because he’s hired this black woman? That’s not how racism works.”
Instead of just giving his point of view, Lemon had hoped to have Meadows on to talk about it, but he chose to go somewhere a little more friendly.
“And by the way, in fairness, in truth, we asked Mark Meadows to come on. I wanted to hear from him himself to explain, to have a thoughtful conversation,” Lemon said, “but he went on Fox News with Sean Hannity tonight. And I think I could have had a really good conversation about this with him. I’d still like to have that conversation.”
The hearing got heated when Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., said that Meadows bringing Patton to prove Trump isn’t racist was itself racist. Meadows, who can be seen in a 2012 speech talking about sending then-President Obama back to “Kenya or wherever,” took offense, thinking that he himself was being called a racist. Tlaib later clarified that she was not calling him racist, just the act, and Lemon made the distinction.
“So you did a racist act. Or you made a racist statement. Does that make you entirely a racist? No,” Lemon said. “But the act of what you did can actually be racist and shortsighted.”
CNN Tonight airs weeknights at 10 p.m. on CNN.
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