CNN host Don Lemon told fellow host Chris Cuomo that he believes those who voted for President Trump are in the same camp as those who are in the Ku Klux Klan and the rioters who stormed the Capitol building last Wednesday.
Lemon explained that people cannot use the excuse of not having racist beliefs but still be at a rally with someone who "is carrying a Confederate battle flag or the person next to you has on a neo-Nazis symbol of had some type or has on a Camp Auschwitz, [because] then in your mind wouldn’t you say 'My goodness, I have made the wrong decision, I need to get out of here.'"
Cuomo said it was interesting how people who demonized Muslims and Middle Easterners after 9/11 now want to say you can't paint a group with a broad brush: "Now what you hear is you can’t say everybody who voted for Trump is like the people who went into the capitol. Response."
"No, I just explained to you, if you are on that side you need to think about the side you’re on. I’m never on the side of the Klan. I am never — principled people, conservative, or liberal never on the Klan side. Principled people, conservative or liberal, never on the Nazi side," Lemon replied. "Principled people who are conservative or liberal, never on the side that treats their fellow Americans as less than, that says that your fellow Americans should not exist, that says your fellow Americans should be in a concentration camp or that sides with slavery or sides with any sort of bigotry."
"Right. And if they say, 'I don’t agree with those people, I just like Trump’s policies,'" Cuomo retorted.
"You’re in the crowd who voted for Trump. If you voted for Trump you voted for the person who the Klan supported. You voted for the person who Nazis support. You voted for the person who the alt-right supports. That’s the crowd that you are in. You voted for the person who incited a crowd to go into the capitol and potentially take the lives of lawmakers. Took the lives of police officers. Took the lives of innocent lives who were there on the Capitol that day. You voted on that side," Lemon said.
On Tuesday, Lemon also tried to make the case that the BLM riots that occurred over the summer were more justifiable than the riot at the Capitol building, saying the two are not comparable. Lemon said the BLM movement is about holding police departments accountable for misconduct.