Don Lemon blasted married MSNBC co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski for treating incoming President Donald Trump with “civility,” going on a profanity-ridden rant on his podcast.
Lemon’s harsh comments came as he reacted to a recent episode of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, in which former Republican National Committee (RNC) chair Michael Steele joined hosts Scarborough and Brzezinski to denounce the push to be civil towards the president-elect.
After Scarborough praised former President Barack Obama and Trump for appearing to be friendly with each other at late President Jimmy Carter’s funeral last week, Steele questioned why liberals should play nicely with Trump.
“You like to say 78 million people voted for Donald Trump, well 82 million people voted for Joe Biden and he didn’t get that civility you’re talking about from Donald Trump in those four years,” Steele said, prompting Scarborough to deliver a heated response.
“Michael, do you think we don’t know that? Michael, why do you feel the need to create false choices?” the MSNBC personality asked.
“It’s not the end of the world that Barack Obama smiled and talked to Donald Trump,” Scarborough continued as he repeatedly cut Steele off.
Lemon appeared angered at Scarborough’s dismissal of Steele’s apparent unwillingness to be civil with Trump — repeatedly dropping the “f-bomb” in his live reaction on a Friday episode of his podcast titled “Joe and Mika CALLED OUT on Their Own Show!”:
“If someone disrespects my loved one, I don’t have to smile in their fucking 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. Fuck you!” the former CNN host said.
Though conceding that Obama is a “classy man,” Lemon argued that his now-viral socialization with Trump has helped to legitimize him:
“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?” Lemon said.
Lemon also criticized the Morning Joe duo — who have likened Trump to Adolf Hitler in the past — for meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago shortly after he was reelected to open up a line of civil “communication” in a move that garnered backlash from their own viewers.
“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,” he said.
He vented, “Folks are tired of the behavior being normalized. Civility does not mean befriending people or forgoing your morals and your principles and your character.”
In the days that followed Scarborough and Brzezinski’s controversial meeting with Trump, their viewership plummeted by over 200,000, Breitbart News reported.
