CNN’s Don Lemon moderated a panel Tuesday evening in which two of the panelists referred to Kanye West using an offensive racial term. Lemon cracked up at the first use of the term which was apparently a reference to a Chris Rock joke and did not comment on or criticize another panelist calling Kanye a "token Negro."
.@Bakari_Sellers: "My issue with Kanye West is quite simple -- is that anti-intellectualism simply isn't cool." https://t.co/FVeCRODqXl pic.twitter.com/rhH5nWSubZ
— CNN Tonight (@CNNTonight) October 10, 2018
“Kanye West is what happens when Negroes don’t read,” CNN commentator Bakari Sellers quipped. “And we have this now, and now Donald Trump is going to use this and pervert it, and he’s gonna have somebody who can stand with him and take pictures.”
Fellow panelist Scott Jennings appeared shocked at the term as Lemon cracked up saying, “Just looking at Scott.”
“It’s a Chris Rock reference by the way, Scott,” Tara Setmayer chimed in. She also referred to Kanye using the same term but not in the context of a Chris Rock reference.
“Listen, black folks are about to trade Kanye West in the racial draft, okay?” she said. “He’s an attention whore like the president. He’s all of a sudden now the model spokesperson; he’s the token Negro of the Trump Administration?”
She concluded by citing his mental health struggles as a reason not to take him seriously.
“This is ridiculous,” she emphasized. “And no one should be taking Kanye West seriously; he clearly has issues; he’s already been hospitalized. Not to trivialize mental health issues but obviously Kanye has taken a turn in a very strange way.”
While CNN did not censor or comment on the panelists' use of that word, Lemon did take offense during his show Tuesday at the use of the term “mob” in reference to leftist protestors that have chased GOP lawmakers out of restaurants.
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"Is it mob behavior? No, it's not mob behavior," Lemon said after a heated exchange with center-right commentator Matt Lewis. "It's people who are upset and they're angry with the way the country is going."
CNN host Brooke Baldwin chastised Lewis for using the term mob in that way as well Tuesday, asking him not to use the “m-word” saying she felt that it was part of the “weaponization” that is happening “on the right.”
.@BrookeBCNN scolds @mattklewis for using word "mob" to describe people who went after Ted Cruz in restaurant. If a bunch of red hats chanted at and chased Mazie Hirono out of a restaurant, would she interrupt her guest and chide him for using "mob" to describe them? Come on now. pic.twitter.com/EzC6xeC1h3
— David Rutz (@DavidRutz) October 9, 2018
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