CNN’s Don Lemon is over the “fake news” line that President Donald Trump and his supporters have been promoting over the last few weeks.
Lemon’s frustration became apparent when he abruptly ended the last segment of his show Friday night after a pro-Trump commentator continued to refer to a story in discussion as “fake news.”
Lemon was moderating a conversation about the cost of Trump’s frequent travel to Mar-a-Lago, his multimillion dollar country club in Florida. Trump has taken to calling it the “Winter White House,” a getaway that is likely to cost taxpayers a pretty penny. Paris Dennard, a regular political commentator on CNN, and Trump supporter, called the story “fake news.”
And that’s when Lemon lost it. He interrupted Dennard:
“Fake news is when you put out a story to intentionally deceive someone and you know that it is wrong,” he said. “This story that we’re doing right now is not to intentionally deceive anyone. We are simply talking about the cost to keep a President safe.”
“Please stop it with that stupid talking point, that it is a fake news story,” Lemon added. “If you don’t want to participate in the news stories on this network, then don’t come on and participate. But don’t call them fake because you don’t agree with them. Go on.”
Dennard was not persuaded, insisting that the story was fake. And by this point, Lemon had had enough, choosing to end his segment, and show, early.
“Okay, Paris, thank you very much everyone,” Lemon interrupted. “Thanks everyone, thanks for watching. Have a great weekend. Goodnight, all.”
Watch the back-and-forth below:
