Conservative group: CNN’s Don Lemon segment shows what ‘elites of America think about the rest of the country’

A spokesperson for Heritage Action for America on Wednesday criticized CNN anchor Don Lemon over a weekend segment in which the host laughed after a guest mocked supporters of President Trump.

“The CNN segment shows exactly what the elites of America think about the rest of the country,” said Noah Weinrich. “They think they’re dumb [and] they think they’re incapable of governing themselves, but it’s rude and it’s offensive and it’s just wrong.”

Heritage Action for America is a political action group that is part of the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation. 

Lemon addressed the segment at the end of his show on Tuesday following backlash from conservatives and Trump himself. He maintained that he was laughing at the joke and “not any group of people.”

“Ask anyone who knows me,” Lemon said at the end of his show Tuesday while addressing the segment. “They’ll tell you: I don’t believe in belittling people … for who they are, for what they believe or where they’re from.”

During the segment on Saturday, Lemon had a panel discussion with two staunch critics of the president: GOP strategist Rick Wilson and New York Times columnist and CNN contributor Wajahat Ali.

Lemon laughed after Wilson said, “Trump couldn’t find Ukraine on a map if you had the letter ‘U’ and a picture of an actual physical crane next to it.”

Wilson went on to call Trump supporters “the credulous boomer rube demo.”

Trump later responded to the moment on the show, calling Lemon “the dumbest man on television.”

Don Lemon, the dumbest man on television (with terrible ratings!). https://t.co/iQXCc7lvCt

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 28, 2020 

Others also lambasted the segment, including former CNN senior digital producer Steve Krakauer, who called it the “perfect encapsulation” of why Trump could win reelection.

— Tess Bonn