CNN anchor Don Lemon offered praise for Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich, on Wednesday following her spat with colleague Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., after the congressman brought a President Trump ally to the Michael Cohen hearing to refute claims that Trump is a racist.
During the testimony of Cohen, Trump's former personal attorney who was recently disbarred, Meadows introduced longtime Trump associate Lynne Patton to prove that the president has no animosity toward African-Americans.
“She says that as a daughter of a man born in Birmingham, Alabama, that there is no way that she would work for an individual who was racist,” Meadows told Cohen during the hearing, upsetting the CNN host in the process.
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Lemon blasted Meadows for treating Patton like a “live prop” and using the “I have a black friend” trope.
“C’mon y’all. 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,” Lemon said.
He then played the fiery exchange between Meadows and Tlaib, who called the congressman’s actions a “racist act.”
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“Well, these young women are really getting under the skins of the establishment, the old guys, aren’t they?” Lemon grinned. “They’re probably more in touch with the people than most of the people who are in Congress now. And they don’t like it because things are changing.”
Lemon was likely also referencing other freshman congresswomen: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who has become the face of the Green New Deal and helped halt Amazon’s plans to build a headquarters in New York City, and Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn, who landed in hot water this month over anti-Semitic tweets.
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