Boy howdy has CNN's Don Lemon showed his true colors with his latest criticism of John Kasich. Kasich, the avowed anti-Trumper one time hailed by establishment hacks as the GOP savior from Donald Trump, has been a constant critic of the 45th president since even before he earned the 2016 GOP nomination. But, on Monday night, Kasich committed perhaps the most egregious error a CNN conservative can make -- he refused to criticize President Trump over his Ukrainian phone call. In Kasich's mind, there was no explicit quid pro quo. In Lemon's mind, Kasich quickly became "part of the problem."
While discussing the transcript of President Trump's July 2019 phone call to Ukrainian President Zelensky, Kasich expressed his opinion that Trump simply did not do what the Democrats are accusing him of.
"Look, in reading that transcript, I did not see a clear quid pro quo," Kasich told Lemon. "We talked about this the day it came out. And what I’m saying to you is I think it’s serious. There should be an investigation. We should have all these witnesses. We ought to get to the bottom line and see if we can establish that."
“John, if you ask me to do something, if you said, ‘Don, I need something from you’ and I said to you, ‘John, yes, but I need you to do me a favor, though,’ what does that mean?" Lemon rebutted.
After some back and forth, Lemon declared that Kasich was "doing exactly what the apologists are doing."
“People disagree with the transcript and they’re honest people,” Kasich rebutted.
"If you’re not helping people understand the problem, then you are part of the problem," Lemon pontificated.
The bigger lesson here isn't that a CNN host thinks Trump should be impeached. It isn't even that Lemon is a pretty stupid guy. This is well documented. The main takeaway from this clip is that it perfectly encapsulates the mindset of the left. You either agree with them lockstep on every issue, or you are "part of the problem." For all the criticism that conservative voters are simpleminded, Lemon's attack on Kasich shows it is actually progressives who truly lack a nuanced understanding of the world.
The entire exchange can be seen below: