According to a report by Fox News, football legend Herschel Walker is calling for CNN to fire Don Lemon over his laughing on-air at derogatory remarks made about rapper Kanye West on Tuesday night.
The controversial “CNN Tonight” segment in question, which is being criticized as racist, began when host Don Lemon wondered aloud whether President Donald Trump is “using Kanye as a prop to win over black voters before the midterms.”
Bakari Sellers, a CNN political commentator, replied by further insulting West.
“Anti-intellectualism simply isn’t cool,” Sellers said.“Kanye West is what happens when Negros don’t read.”
The remark drew laughter from both Don Lemon and additional panelist Tara Setmayer, who added that West is “the token negro of the Trump administration.”
There were also jabs made about mental health during the segment.
Herschel Walker, both an outspoken Trump supporter and advocate for mental health issues, was not amused. He voiced his disapproval on Twitter.
“Went to bed appalled over Don Lemon's despicable behavior laughing at Tara Setmayer and Bakari Sellers' awful remarks about Kanye West’s visit with [Trump]! Woke up wondering why CNN doesn’t take all three off the air?” tweeted Walker, before adding the hashtag "#Shameful."
Setmayer responded to Walker’s tweet: “Bless your heart… You want to silence me because I expressed a different opinion than yours? Because I called out Kanye for what he is? Uninformed! I’m an actual conservative, who’s worked on policy advancing those principles for 20-plus years. I’ll never be a shill for Trump.”
But Walker didn’t back down.
“No...Tara Setmayer, anyone that is African American with an opinion different than yours, you want to call them out by using the N-word and Don Lemon is laughing? To me that’s bullying and shameful," he replied.
CNN did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment.
Herschel Walker is not the only person voicing concern over the CNN segment.
Fox News contributor Deroy Murdock also denounced the remarks.
“These reprehensible, racist comments on CNN are typical of the Trump-hating left” represented by the mainstream media, Murdock said.
“Black Americans who think for ourselves are mocked and degraded with words we last saw under Jim Crow. If President Trump had no black supporters, they would call his circle 'lily white,'” Murdock said. "Now, one of America's most prominent black entertainers praises and visits the president, and he is trivialized as a 'token' who 'doesn't read.'”
Murdock went on to add that the “only silver lining in this vile cloud is that the supposedly bigoted Trump presidency has delivered the lowest black unemployment in American history.”
Candace Owens, a pro-Trump conservative activist and commentator, expressed her disapproval to Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Wednesday, saying the segment was “not only racist, it was absolutely despicable.”
“I cannot believe it would be allowed on any network, least of all having a host that’s laughing as if it’s funny,” said Owens.
On Thursday, Don Lemon called Kanye’s visit to the White House a “minstrel show.”