Politics and Current
Don Lemon Faces Backlash From Black Community, Accused Of Struggling To Stay Relevant After Controversial Comments About Kamala Harris
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.
“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.”
Politics and Current
8 times Kamala Harris gave us beauty inspiration – the essence
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Preparing for work in an office can seem very limiting. We need to be sweet and never be considered over the top. Still, we shouldn’t surrender on our well-being simply because we’re up to this point. But for inspiration, we will turn to Kamala Harris, who seems to have all of it discovered in the beauty department. Her elegant sense of fashion, makeup and hairstyle never appear to wane. No matter how intense things get in the office, Harris will at all times be visible.
In the spirit of supporting our VP, below are our favourite office-ready looks from Harris.
No makeup Makeup
We’re used to Harris doing every part in her power to look glamorous. However, he often keeps every part to a minimum. The vice chairman’s face is nearly fresh, with some eyeliner and mascara.
Lip gloss
Who said lip gloss is just too much for the office? Harris gives us a unique perspective by rocking mocha gloss. The makeup stands out beautifully, but Harris’ smile will at all times be the better part of this makeup look.
Vintage Glam
Harris proves that she has at all times cared about her beauty. For example, her graduation look embodied ’80s chic with daring pink lipstick and blush.
Glam Pride
Harris made a loud and colourful appearance at the pride ceremony. She applied a peach blush to the tops of her cheeks, which is a rare occurrence as she often sticks to a neutral makeup palette. The updo with side-swept bangs also caught attention.
Explosion Queen
Can we take a moment to understand this explosion? Yes, beauty is all about makeup, but what brings all of it together is an incredible hairstyle. Highlights, layers and reflections are *chef’s kiss.*
Eyeliner goals
Eyeliner is at all times a key ingredient in Harris’ makeup. She often uses a skinny pencil to emphasise the shape of her eyes.
Signing in style
The vice chairman announced her run for president during the class. In addition to the all-black suit and fresh makeup, she also opted for neutral makeup with a touch of eye shadow. This is her signature makeup that might be remembered for a lifetime.
Mocha makeup
As Harris gazed out at the crowd of hundreds of Americans, she wore classic mocha makeup. The TikTok trend combines browns and neutral tones to create a balanced glow.
Politics and Current
Stephen A. Smith fumes at Oprah and Michelle Obama, accusing them of making voters feel like they don’t ‘necessary’
Let the electoral blame game begin.
ESPN host Stephen A. Smith has he solid his vote within the post-election ritual of pointing to someone or something as the explanation a candidate lost, pointing to Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama.
On Wednesday on his podcast “The Stephen A. Smith Show,” Smith said the media mogul and former first lady set an exclusionary tone that turned off men (Trump’s most credible voting bloc).
“If we don’t agree with you, are we against you?” Smith said, referencing the media mogul and former first lady’s speeches. “What do you think the men thought about this? So we must do what you tell us; otherwise we are against you? Did you think it worked? Do you know anything about most men? Do you think this will work?”
Oprah and Michelle O. are among the many long list of celebrities who’ve endorsed Democrat Kamala Harris. She had on her side the most well-liked artists within the country (Beyonce and Taylor Swift), essentially the most famous athlete (LeBron James) and two of essentially the most famous actors (George Clooney and Harrison Ford). Stars from the past (Madonna and Bruce Springsteen) and current (Charli xcx and Lizzo) declared their support for Harris.
But together they were all fair sermon for the choirsaid Seth Abramovitch, senior author at the Hollywood Reporter.
“Oprah, Katy Perry, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Ariana Grande – these are artists whose audiences (black, female, liberal, queer) were already willing to vote for Kamala,” he told The Guardian.
Swift, popular with each country and pop fans, appears to be an outlier, Abramovich said, but her influence was negligible amongst two demographic groups which have shifted significantly toward Trump.
Of course, the identical may be said about famous Trump supporters. Women of color, part of the demographic most proof against the previous and future commander-in-chief, weren’t about to be influenced by the likes of Hulk Hogan, Kid Rock and Lee Greenwood.
Left or right, famously, they rarely, if ever, move the counter together with voters.
“In the academic literature,” said Professor Margaretha Bentley of Arizona State University, who has studied Swift’s cultural impact, “research has shown that while celebrity endorsements can increase civic engagement and voter registration, it has not been proven to have a direct impact on the way people make voting decisions.”
When Swift endorsed Harris, she directed followers to this page voting.gov. The website was visited by 405,999 people in 24 hours. However, not everyone was convinced to vote for the previous prosecutor and current vice chairman.
In fact, Swift can have hurt Harris greater than helped. A poll conducted by YouGov shortly after her endorsement found that only 8 percent of voters can be “somewhat” or “much more” more likely to vote for Harris, well below the 20 percent of respondents who said supporting Swift would make them less more likely to vote for a Democrat.
Ashley Spillane of Harvard, who writer a study titled “Celebrities Strengthen Our Culture of Democracy” found that it’s unattainable to quantify whether a celeb endorsement translates into more votes for a candidate.
This is a change from the past. A 2008 poll conducted by Northwestern University found that Oprah’s endorsement of Barack Obama added roughly a million votes to his final tally.
But that was in less divisive times.
Smith argued that it was Oprah’s message, not Oprah herself, that turned off male voters. Her warning on the eve of the election was that a second Trump term would herald an antidemocratic takeover of the United States
“This is something that alienates the electorate, alienates the voter,” Smith said. “Because the freedom you tell them you have, you’re trying to morally confiscate it by letting them know you’re worth nothing if you don’t vote the way we think you should vote.”
“Who will decide on this in the general election?” Smith asked. “In an economy full of inflation, with over 12 million people crossing the border?”
Stephen A Smith destroys Democrats and Oprah. Listen. pic.twitter.com/PWf14XxpPw
— The Godfather (@facts215_) November 7, 2024
The high-power recommendations also served to substantiate Republicans’ findings that Democrats were an elite party.
“Ultimately, stars price lots of of tens of millions, if not billions, who most American residents imagine are incredibly out of touch with their lifestyle and the standard of it, weren’t going to run away and blame them for doing something different than what their experience says and what they should do with it do,” Smith said.
The people almost certainly to learn from a celeb’s endorsement are the celebrity themselves, says Laurence F. Maslon, an art professor at New York University.
“I think sometimes it’s a way of tying your star to someone who seems to be good for you, and maybe there’s some kind of reflected glory in that,” Maslon said.
British comedian Ricky Gervais probably said it best video – he posted in June wherein he ridiculed overly serious stars who imagine that their political beliefs really matter.
“As a celebrity, I know everything about science and politics, so trust me when I tell you who you should vote for,” Gervais said. “If you don’t vote the right way it will be like a hate crime and it makes me sad and angry so I will leave the country and you don’t want that.”
Politics and Current
Monique Worrell, one of two Democratic prosecutors ousted by DeSantis in Florida, gets her old job back
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — One of two Democratic state attorneys in Florida who’re Republicans Governor Ron DeSantis removed from office in what opponents said was a political move and won him his old job back from voters.
In the Orlando area, Democrat Monique Worrell on Tuesday defeated Andrew Bain, the candidate DeSantis replaced Worrell with last 12 months and who ran without party affiliation. In the Tampa area, Andrew Warren, who was ousted by DeSantis in 2022, gave approach to Suzy Lopez, a Republican DeSantis selected to exchange a Democrat.
DeSantis said Worrell didn’t prosecute crimes committed by minors and didn’t seek mandatory minimum sentences for gun crimes, putting the general public in her Central Florida district in danger. She disputed his claims as false and politically motivated.
Speaking before fans Tuesday night, Worrell dedicated the win to her father, who died unexpectedly last June. “Before he took his last breath, he told me, ‘Go back to your seat,’” she said.
“I want to thank the voters for standing with me and saying, ‘We don’t believe you, Ron DeSantis,’” Worrell said.
DeSantis removed Warren over his signing of the guarantees that it is going to not bring criminal charges against individuals in search of abortion or gender reassignment services or individuals providing abortion or sex reassignment therapy services, and its policy of not prosecuting certain minor offenses.
“I am proud of the race we ran,” Warren said in an announcement Tuesday night. “The best candidate doesn’t always win, especially when the other side cheats by illegally suspending you and then spending millions of dollars lying about you.”
The governor’s office didn’t immediately reply to an emailed inquiry on Wednesday.
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