Don Lemon slams Morning Joe for preaching 'civility’ with Trump: ‘Smile in their f—king face’
Former CNN host Don Lemon went off on MSNBC's Joe Scarborough after a heated argument broke out on his program Friday over whether people should be "civil" with the incoming Trump administration.
Scarborough had a pointed exchange with former RNC chair Michael Steele after the host praised former President Barack Obama for being friendly with President-elect Donald Trump at former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral.
"You like to say 78 million people voted for Donald Trump, well 82 million people voted for Joe Biden… civility is a two-way street" Steele said.
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"Tell us something we don’t know," Scarborough shot back during the tense exchange.
Lemon blasted Scarborough for preaching civility towards Trump after months of calling him a fascist and threat to democracy in a profanity-laced rant during his "Live at Five" podcast on Friday.
"If someone disrespects my loved one, I don’t have to smile in their f--king face! And they’re going to know it…. These are the very same MAGA people who have called, and Donald Trump has helped promote, calling Michelle Obama a man. I’m not smiling in your face if you’re calling my sister and my mother or my wife or my girlfriend, a man. F--k you!" Lemon said.
He added, "If they’re going to acquiesce seemingly like that publicly, then what does that mean in the broader sense of the structure of the fabric of our society?"
"Morning Joe" hosts Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski have faced months of liberal backlash after the pair trekked to Mar-a-Lago after the election for their first face-to-face meeting with Trump in seven years.
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Washington Post’s media critic Eric Wemple bashed the hosts in a November column entitled "Five reasons Democrats should turn off ‘Morning Joe.’"
"Why cordon off a soul-searching segment of ‘Morning Joe’ for this quasi-revelation? Perhaps to send a signal to MSNBC’s resistance community: You might not like what you see on this program going forward. Could those folks have driven the ratings dip at ‘Morning Joe’ immediately following Monday’s announcement?" Wemple wrote.
Lemon lectured Scarborough on how he thinks he should be covering the incoming administration.
"You have to indicate to the American people that this is not normal…grinning with someone that you have called a fascist over the last couple of years and the last months. That’s not normal. Folks are tired of the behavior being normalized," Lemon said.
Lemon has not minced words when it comes to how he feels about Trump and his supporters. He referred to Trump as a "cult leader" and some of his voters as "dumb f—king idiots" with "stupid MAGA brain" during a December episode of his podcast.
In a subsequent episode Lemon said he stood by his comments, calling his critics "butthurt" and saying to those offended "too f---ing bad."