Bill Maher Shuts Down Don Lemon’s Racist Comments About Black Trump Supporters
Bill Maher shut down former CNN host Don Lemon’s racist comments about black supporters of President Donald Trump when he said a “huge faction of the MAGA movement” are “really f***ing racist” and that you can’t be black “and be a rational MAGA person.”
During Lemon’s appearance on Maher’s “Club Random podcast,” the two talked about Tom Hanks’ “Black Jeopardy” sketch on “Saturday Night Live,” in which he reprised his role as a Trump supporter wearing a red MAGA cap.
“I get all the bad things about the [Trump] administration, but if you think they don’t shake black people’s hands, it’s just, you’re wrong,” Maher said in response to the sketch. “It’s just not helpful to think that half the country, that’s where they are.”
Lemon said part of the sketch is comedy, but “let’s be honest,” there’s a “huge faction of the MAGA movement that’s really f***ing racist.”
Maher disagreed, saying: “I wouldn’t say huge. No.”
“I would say huge,” Lemon replied. “But even if they’re not, you have to overlook a lot of that in order to support Donald Trump, which I think is maybe even more egregious than just saying, ‘I’m a racist.’”
“I don’t think all of MAGA is racist,” Lemon continued. “But I do think that there’s a huge element in the MAGA party that is racist—whether they are, whether they are conscious of it or not … some of them are not.”
“And if they are not, they have had to overlook a lot of racism and a lot of bigotry,” he added. “And if you do that and you say, ‘I’m ok with this,’ that I think that makes you worse than someone who just says, ‘Hey, I’m a racist.’”
“When I see a black MAGA person who is carrying Trump’s water and they know he is lying … I don’t think that you can be black and be a rational MAGA person, I think you can be black and be a Republican,” Lemon continued later.
Maher responded and said black Trump supporters would find Lemon’s comments “very insulting.”
”Well, I mean, the truth is often insulting,” the former CNN host replied.
Lemon was fired from CNN in 2023 and later announced plans to have his own YouTube podcast to try to make it on his own in the independent media lane.
