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Don Lemon Faces Backlash From Black Community, Accused Of Struggling To Stay Relevant After Controversial Comments About Kamala Harris

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Former CNN anchor Don Lemon stirred up trouble within the black community this week but gained praise from conservatives after an interview with Jen Psaki on MSNBC by which he questioned the legitimacy of Vice President Kamala Harris’ candidacy and solid doubt on polls that show her ahead of former President Donald Trump.

Lemon, known for his controversial opinions and former outspoken criticism of Trump, sat down with “Inside With Jen Psaki” host on Monday to debate conversations he’s had recently with black voters who, surprisingly, support Trump.

Lemon claimed he spoke with many black voters who were unfamiliar with Harris and intended to vote for Trump, believing he was “on the side of black people” because they thought he could provide one other stimulus check if re-elected, despite Trump making no such promise.

Don Lemon Faces Backlash From Black Community, Accused Of Struggling To Stay Relevant After Controversial Comments About Kamala Harris
Don Lemon attends the premiere of “Origin” in New York City on November 30, 2023 at Alice Tully Hall in New York City. (Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)

“I don’t know if it was surprising, but it was definitely eye-opening to hear so many people, even people of color and women, saying they’re going to support Donald Trump,” Lemon said, before questioning recent polls that showed Harris leading the race for the White House.

Lemon taped his own interviews on the Atlantic City, New Jersey, boardwalk, which supports the veracity of his reporting, but he drew criticism from many black individuals who said Lemon was grasping at straws and struggling to remain relevant after being fired from CNN in April 2023.

“Oh my God, how the mighty have fallen” he wrote @delinthecity_. “Remember when mainstream news used to make fun of content creators and influencers? Now, former CNN employee Don Lemon is out on the streets doing content creator-style interviews, asking people if they support Kamala Harris or Donald Trump.”

Another user, @JennyBGoodX, said Lemon was “clinging to life.”

“Let’s be realistic, he could have fished on that boardwalk all day and night and probably gotten all the answers he wanted,” user X SausageMcBigot said. “He actually posted both sides, even though he made it clear he was still on his side.”

Lemon’s interview with Psaki, in turn, provided fodder for conservative activists and conspiracy theorists, who raced to share videos of Lemon on their social media channels while claiming without evidence that polls were being rigged to favor Harris.

“This is what I mean when I say Kamala’s popularity is fake” he wrote @BehizyTweets, verified X user. “How can she grow so fast when her most engaged base (black voters) knows nothing about her? It’s all a facade and some people are falling for it.”

In the comments section, other Republican pundits seized on Lemon’s remarks to discredit Harris and praise Trump.

“People are shocked to learn that Trump has done more for the black community than the current administration,” @USACannibal wrote, without providing any links to the bills.

Lemon, who occasionally appears on national news programs, continues to command respect within the media despite a bent toward biased reporting that has plagued him throughout his long profession as a political commentator.

“I’m not entirely sure if the polls are accurate in terms of the tightening of the polls and who’s going to support who,” Lemon told the host, sparking a virtual frenzy amongst Trump supporters who fiercely attacked Harris on social media.

Psaki, meanwhile, appeared surprised by Lemon’s recent comments in regards to the GOP nominee once they were in comparison with Lemon’s withering criticism of Trump following his election in 2016.

At the time, Lemon had his own prime-time show, “CNN Tonight with Don Lemon,” on which he blasted Trump almost every night, delivering sharp commentary on his presidency.

After Trump left office, Lemon’s rankings plummeted, and his show was eventually canceled. From there, he became a co-host of “CNN This Morning” before being fired last yr after 17 years on the network.

Earlier this yr, Lemon announced a brand new show on X called “The Don Lemon Show.” X owner and billionaire Elon Musk was the show’s first guest. However, after taping the interview, Musk reportedly canceled the show before it aired.

Following the disaster, Lemon launched the Don Lemon Show on YouTube, also often known as Lemon Live at 5, a prime-time news format by which he borrowed clips from his old station to present his views.

His last show on August 28 was titled “Will Black Women Save Democracy” and featured an interview with LaTosha Brown of Black Voters Matter.

Returning to the segment with Psaki, Lemon described his interviews with black voters and travels through key battleground states, where Harris began traveling this week in an effort to drum up support in rural areas.

Despite positive economic indicators favoring Harris within the race, Lemon claimed that many Black voters told him they planned to vote for Trump solely due to stimulus check they received in 2021 with Trump’s signature, stating that Black individuals are willing to “vote with their wallets.”

“There were a lot of black men, Jen, who said they supported Donald Trump simply because he gave them a stimulus check,” Lemon explained. “He gave them $1,200 when he was president. They didn’t remember that the current president also gave them a stimulus check, it’s just that his name wasn’t on it,” he added, referring to the incumbent President, Joe Biden.

Lemon said he has repeatedly reminded Black voters that the stimulus check was not issued by Trump but by a Democratic Congress, and Trump delayed its release so he could sign it.

“So when they got the check and his name was on it, they automatically thought it came directly from Donald Trump, which I think is good marketing,” Lemon said. “The same thing he does with buildings all over the country, especially in New York. He doesn’t actually own them, but he puts his name on them, which makes people think they own them, and that makes them think he’s richer, bigger, more charitable than he is.”

At that time, Psaki turned her attention to Harris, asking Lemon for her tackle how voters view the Democratic nominee in comparison with Trump.

“In most cases in Pittsburgh or the Jersey Shore, Ohio, a lot of people didn’t know who she was. They weren’t familiar with her,” Lemon said, before turning his attention back to Trump with gusto. “They thought he was better for the economy. That he brought money into the community. That he stood with black people.”

But Lemon noted that most of the reasons voters supported Trump were based on misinformation.

“I’ve been doing this long enough that you never know where people are going to be and how they’re going to vote,” he said. “That’s their personal prerogative. But I think it’s important that they understand and go to the polls with some knowledge that they’re informed about as voters. And for other reasons that they told me, all the information was false. They didn’t understand the actual reasons why they could vote for him.”

The host reminded Lemon of his earlier statements by which he called Trump a “racist on TV” and asked if the people he spoke to shared that view.

Lemon didn’t argue, noting that he’s repeatedly criticized Trump for “lying”: “Of course, I think he’s a racist. You look at his rhetoric and his history, and everyone can see that,” he replied. Lemon then asked why so many individuals within the black community support Trump, suggesting that folks are more concerned with “how much or how little money they have in their pockets.”

During the interview, Lemon repeatedly presented his theory about support for Trump among the many small group of black voters he interviewed as representative of the broader sentiment of the whole black community in America.

Lemon then suggested that black voters are ignoring Trump’s achievements and only supporting him to get one other stimulus check.

“We’re talking about low-information voters. I like to call them low-partisan information voters because a lot of the people I talked to weren’t sitting in front of the TV every day and every night following every micro-event about Donald Trump and what was happening in politics,” Lemon said.

Both during and after his presidency, Trump continued to spread rumors and deliberately stoked racial tensions through the election campaign to enrage his supporters.

He has previously sharply criticized black court officials who oversee his quite a few criminal and civil cases, making them targets of his limitless political grievances.

During Black History Month, Trump sparked one other firestorm when he called President Biden a “very nasty and vicious racist” during a speech on the South Carolina Federation of Black Conservatives’ annual gala.

Following her speech, Vice President Harris wasted no time in criticizing Trump for pandering to the black community, calling him a hypocrite and insincere.

“The audacity of Donald Trump to address a room full of Black voters during Black History Month as if he were not the proud poster boy of modern racism,” Harris fumed. “This is the same man who falsely accused the Central Park 5, questioned George Floyd’s humanity, compared his own impeachment trial to a lynching, and drove unemployment among Black workers higher during his presidency.”


This article was originally published on : atlantablackstar.com
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Politics and Current

Video captured of Miami police officer picking up 15-year-old girl and throwing her to the ground because he thought she was going to attack him

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Ikeria Tate, a 15-year-old black girl from Miami, is facing felony charges after she was thrown to the ground by a Miami-Dade Public Schools police officer last week.

The incident occurred at Edison High School in Miami and was captured on video that was posted to Instagram last week, which is why the full, unedited footage appears to not be available online.

However, Local 10 obtained the video and used edited portions in its news story that showed a person identified only as Miami-Dade Public Schools Sergeant Odige throwing Tate to the ground during a fight at the school after a football game.

'I didn't throw a punch': Black girl says she was just trying to avoid another hit, but now faces charges for assaulting police officer
Ikeria Tate, a 15-year-old black girl from Miami, is facing charges after a Miami-Dade Public Schools police officer threw her to the ground last week, claiming he was only defending himself. (Photo: YouTube)

The footage shows that after he threw her body to the ground, the man approached her and grabbed her by the hair. At that time, she waved her right hand twice.

Miami-Dade Public Schools police believed the flapping of her arms was an attack on an officer, so she was charged with assaulting an officer, resisting arrest and disturbing a college.

An arrest report obtained by Local 10 stated that Tate “became aggressive, tensing up and pulling away. The defendant continued to be aggressive and attempted to strike the sergeant with a closed fist.”

However, Tate claims she tried to grab the officer to avoid further attack.

“When he hit me, I tried to hold him so I could get up because he couldn’t hit me,” she said. NBC station in Miami.

“I didn’t mean to hit him, I just told him to leave me alone,” Tate told Local 10.

The arrest report also said police were trying to separate the fighting women when Tate intervened, pushing Sergeant Odige away and punching him, causing him to “redirect” her to the ground, which is police jargon for throwing someone to the ground.

However, the footage released by Local 10 doesn’t show the moments leading up to the impact, which might support the allegation that the woman pushed and swung at the officer.

“When I got up, he pulled me back down, like threw me back down, and one of the cops started stomping on my hair,” she told NBC Miami. “And then they handcuffed me and put me in the back of the police car.”

The incident occurred on September 11 after a football game at Edison High School, a college positioned in the Little Haiti neighborhood of Miami.

Police say a fight broke out between parents and students outside the school’s locker room. They tried to separate the attackers when Tate intervened.

However, Tate claims she was only one of several individuals who saw the fight when the officer grabbed her and began throwing her around.

The Miami-Dade School District and Miami-Dade Public Schools Department said they’re investigating the incident.

For now, nevertheless, Tate faces up to five years in prison for his third offense of assaulting a law enforcement officer.

Local media reported she was charged with resisting arrest, but didn’t specify whether she was charged with resisting arrest with violence or without violence, as those are two separate charges in Florida.

The former is a third-degree felony, also punishable by up to five years in prison, while the latter is just a misdemeanor, punishable by up to one 12 months in prison.

But she likely faces the former, as she also faces an assault charge. The charge can’t be confirmed through online public records because she is a minor.

“I don’t think he should have done that to my child. If anything, you should have tried to stop her in a better way,” Tate’s mother, Monique Warner, told Local 10.

“He shouldn’t touch anyone’s children like that. You should help them. That’s why children are afraid of the law.”

This article was originally published on : atlantablackstar.com
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Kamala Harris Stresses She Needs to Earn Black Male Votes and Doesn’t ‘Assume’ She Has Them During NABJ-WHYY Panel

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Kamala Harris, NABJ-WHYY conversation with Vice President Kamala Harris, theGrio.com

“Black men are like any other voting group; you have to earn their votes,” Harris told the panel, co-moderated by Gaynor, Poltico’s Eugene Daniels and NPR’s WHYY’s Tonya Mosley. “So I work to earn my votes. I don’t assume I’m going to get them because I’m black.”

Although a majority of black voters surveyed — 77 percent — plan to select Harris, Pew Research Center — Many headlines are repeating reports that more and more black men are declaring support for former President Donald Trump this election cycle.

Harris also discussed her plans to increase the deduction entrepreneurs can claim when starting a business from $5,000 to $50,000, saying the $5,000 deduction is much too little to help people get their businesses off the bottom.

“Part of my approach is to understand the obstacles that traditionally and currently exist that prevent anyone, including black men, from achieving economic prosperity, and I will tell you that I don’t think that just talking about economic policy focused on reducing unemployment is enough,” Harris continued.

During the interview, Harris also addressed the provision of childcare and lower housing costs.

Policy

She also responded to questions on the Gaza conflict, emphasizing the necessity for a hostage deal as Daniels pressed her on questions on the United States’ role in supplying weapons to Israel. Mosley also asked her whether the United States had the resources to support the Palestinians of their right to self-determination.

“I have been actively participating, for example, in meetings not only with Israeli officials but also with Arab officials to talk about how we can construct a scenario for the day after that in which we participate in ensuring those exact goals that I have outlined, including … that there will be no reoccupation of Gaza,” Harris told Moseley.

Harris also addressed false and racist rumors spread by former President Trump and his vice presidential candidate, J.D. Vance, about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, calling the situation “shameful” and saying those in positions of authority have a responsibility to understand the ability of their words.

“When you have a microphone like that in front of you, you really have to understand on a very deep level how much your words matter,” Harris said. “There’s a deep responsibility that comes with it, which is an extension of … this concept of public trust. You’ve been given a trust to be responsible for how you use your words, and even more so for how you conduct yourself, especially when you’ve been and then you’re trying to become president of the United States of America again.”

In contrast to her extremely aggressive and tense interview with Donald Trump on NABJ in July, Harris ended the interview by thanking NABJ and the reporters for making the conversation possible.

You can watch your entire conversation here.

This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
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Politics and Current

National Voter Registration Day: Harris-Walz Campaign, DNC Launch Nationwide Outreach Campaign at 60 HBCU Campuses – Essence

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Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

As a part of a significant effort to mobilize young Black voters ahead of the 2024 election, the Harris-Walz campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) have launched a comprehensive voter registration drive to coincide with National Voter Registration Day (September 17) and National Black Voter Registration Day (September 20). This comprehensive push will concentrate on key swing states and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) ahead of the 2024 presidential election, which is fast approaching in only 49 days.

The campaign will include in-person and virtual campaign events at 60 HBCU campuses in key swing states like Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, (*60*) and Michigan. Harris-Walz’s campaign is tapping into the energy of HBCUs, which have long played a key role in black civic engagement. This week, the campaign will hold nine in-person voter registration events in North Carolina, the state with the second-largest variety of HBCUs within the country.

Vice President Kamala Harris may also mark National Voter Registration Day with a high-profile event in Philadelphia, where she’s going to take part in a moderated Q&A with National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ)). The event will happen in front of an audience of scholars from Lincoln University and Cheyney University, two historic HBCUs, in addition to NABJ members.

“We look forward to our members and student journalists hearing from Vice President Harris as our panel asks the tough questions that are most pressing to the communities served by NABJ members,” said NABJ President Ken Lemon. he said in an announcement to WHYY radio, which can host the interview at its headquarters.

This speech got here just a few month after the NABJ was met with widespread criticism for inviting former President Donald Trump to the annual convention, which drew a backlash from some members and the general public. The invitation, which was a part of the organization’s effort to have interaction with diverse political voices, led to a backlash, particularly from communities critical of Trump’s record on issues affecting Black Americans. Harris’ event is seen as a chance to refocus on voter engagement, particularly amongst Black youth, ahead of the 2024 election.

Lemon added, “As we have always said, NABJ does not endorse political candidates as a journalistic organization. As we demonstrated during our interview with former President Trump at the convention, this event will not be a campaign rally, but it will be conducted with respect for journalistic principles.”

NABJ will broadcast PolitiFact fact-checks survive its website and social media accounts using the hashtag #NABJFactCheck.

In addition to on-the-ground efforts, the campaign will engage voters through digital platforms. The campaign has partnered with Revolt to take over the homepage of the hip-hop culture and news website. This digital initiative, together with other media partnerships, will leverage platforms that resonate with Black Americans, particularly younger voters, to convey the message of getting out the vote.

The campaign can be launching a national voter registration text line, with information available in English and Spanish. The resource is meant to simplify the voter registration process and guide voters through the DNC’s IWillVote.com platform. The campaign says the text line is an element of a broader effort to make sure voters have access to clear and reliable details about registering and casting ballots.

“Every voter deserves to have their voice heard and cast their vote for the future they want to see, which is why we’ve invested millions in our I Will Vote programme and launched a new text helpline so young voters can get real-time information and live support straight to their phones in the run-up to Election Day.” DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison said in an announcement to NBC News.

On Friday, Sept. 20, National Black Voter Registration Day, the Harris-Walz campaign will further ramp up its voter registration efforts with one other media partnership aimed at registering black voters. Focusing on key swing states like Georgia and (*60*) is seen as crucial to each the campaign’s success and the Democrats’ broader electoral strategy. Black voters played a pivotal role in flipping those states within the 2020 election, and the Harris-Walz campaign appears to be prioritizing reaching those communities to maintain that momentum going.

While black voters have historically leaned Democratic, engagement stays a challenge for each parties, especially amongst younger voters. Campaigns are increasingly specializing in young voters, recognizing their potential to influence elections in key swing states.

This article was originally published on : www.essence.com
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