*Don Lemon again found himself on the business end of irate tweets after opening his show Monday night by holding up a sign that read, “nigger.”
Hours earlier, during an appearance on anchor Ashleigh Banfield’s hour to discuss the Confederate flag’s removal from South Carolina’s statehouse grounds, Lemon had with him a prop — a real life Confederate flag he had purchased while in Charleston covering the shooting deaths of nine African Americans by a white supremacist.
He pulled the flag out again for his own show, Monday night.
“This is what America is talking about right now,” Lemon said, holding it up. “Does this offend you? It is a Confederate flag. Is it a symbol of Southern pride or a symbol of hate?”
He then proceeded to hold up the N-word sign and asked: “What about this… does this offend you? President Obama said it out loud in an interview and a lot of people are shocked.”
Watch below:
Twitter wasted no time going in.
The opening quickly be came a trending topic and the tweets were overwhelmingly negative:
What a shame, Don Lemon. Why would you minimize an issue of such dire importance with a “stunt”. Why usurp the genuine momentum?Sad @Cnn !
— Deborah NYC (@DebsWorldNY) June 23, 2015
smh CNN got don lemon out here looking like a supreme coon — William B. Rosewood (@Willtothe) June 23, 2015
It’s clear that CNN has become more interested in the controversy Don Lemon garners than in his integrity as a news man.
— Amanda Seales (@amandaseales) June 23, 2015
Don Lemon is the Walter Cronkite of trolling. — JasFly (@JasFly) June 23, 2015
Don Lemon is the worst Tyler Perry character on CNN.
— Isloated Teen Mom (@smapd) June 23, 2015
@DonLemon ‘s pathological need for attention no matter the cost offends me. #TakeDownThatAnchor — Annie Lawton (@CurlynDoris) June 23, 2015
Don Lemon = Uncle Tom
— Sydni Jones (@SlimFast_) June 23, 2015
Don Lemon is the type of house negro who would tell the slave owner that field negroes were planning a revolt. — B (@BlakeDontCrack) June 23, 2015
American Horror Story: Don Lemon
— SHON (@brownlashon) June 23, 2015
don. my man. nine people got shot dead in a church in a state that flies the confederate flag. this ain’t the time. pic.twitter.com/iTvEuFVM6P — america (@greghoward88) June 23, 2015
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