CNN’s Don Lemon responded to President Donald Trump’s personal attack on he and NBA star LeBron James, saying “referring to African-Americans as dumb is one of the oldest canards of racism in this country.”
Last Friday night, after a re-broadcast of Lemon’s interview with James, which was focused mostly on James’ I PROMISE School in his hometown of Akron created to teach and empower kids living in poverty, the two did address other subjects including criticism of Trump which led the President, who may have been watching CNN Friday night and the Lemon-James interview specifically, to attack Lemon and James’ intelligence on Twitter.
Lebron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon. He made Lebron look smart, which isn’t easy to do. I like Mike!
Lemon listed the number of times Trump displayed his racist beliefs through conspiracy theories to bigoted dog-whistles. And then there was Charlottesville, he said.
In his 10-minute segment Monday, Lemon began by including comments from celebrities, Republicans, even Michael Jordan, who the President refers to in his tweet as the “Mike” he likes.
Rather than criticizing @KingJames, we should be celebrating him for his charity work and efforts to help kids.
By the way, all-around he’s better than Michael Jordan. That’s a fact.
But for Lemon, it was Keith Boykin, Harvard Law school grad, author and CNN contributor, who hit the proverbial nail on its head when he said:
In Trump’s World:
Obama: Kenyan
LeBron James: dumb
Don Lemon: dumb
Maxine Waters: low IQ
black countries: shitholes
black athletes: SOBs
Black tenants: unwelcome
Black workers: lazy
Central Park 5: guilty
Mexicans: rapists
Muslims: terrorists
Indians: fake
Nazis: very fine people
On Saturday morning, after the just-before-midnight tweet from Trump, Lemon tweeted his first the president:
Who’s the real dummy? A man who puts kids in classrooms or one who puts kids in cages? #BeBest t.co/XO50qVksnR
During the interview Trump was remarking on, James said “we’re at a point in America where this whole race thing has taken over …one because I think our president is trying to divide…he is, he’s tying to divide us and what I noticed over the last few months, he’s kind of used sports to divide us…”
Dan Rather and reams of others blasted Trump for, in Rather’s words, a “disgrace” and “racist” attack. And then Rather tweeted again.
I’d much rather live in a world reflecting the values, philanthropy, and yes intelligence of LeBron James and Don Lemon’s intelligent commitment to truth and journalism than the divisive peevishness, lies, and narrow self-interest displayed by the President of the United States.
Late Sunday, a surprising turn of events when First Lady Melania Trump’s spokeswoman said FLOTUS thinks James is “working to do good things on behalf of our next generation.”
Stephanie Grisham told the AP’s Jonathan Lemire the First Lady said it “looks like” James is up to good and that she is supportive of an “open dialogue about issues facing children today.”
NEW: from Melania Trump’s spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham:
“It looks like LeBron James is working to do good things on behalf of our next generation and just as she always has, the First Lady encourages everyone to have an open dialogue about issues facing children today”
And since her “her platform centers around visiting organizations, hospitals and schools,” the First Lady would be “open to visiting the I Promise School in Akron.”
More from Melania Trump’s spokeswoman:
“Her platform centers around visiting organizations, hospitals and schools, and she would be open to visiting the I Promise School in Akron”
James said in the interview that he believes the President has used professional sports, the NFL and NBA in particular, to “kinda divide us.”
“I know that sport was the first time I was around someone white,” James said.
The NBA legend said white and black team mates leaned about one another and “we became very good friends.” James said that “sports has never been something to divide people it’s always been something to bring people together.”