'Facts were not on their side': Ex-CNN host Don Lemon slams Donald Trump and MAGA while defending network's coverage of Russiagate

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Former CNN host Don Lemon appeared as a guest on the premiere episode of 'Counter Points Fridays' with co-hosts Ryan Grim and Emily Jashinsky, on April 26, 2024.

Though he was fired from the network back in 2023, Lemon came to the defense of CNN over its coverage of Russiagate during the presidency of Donald Trump, blaming the presumptive Republican nominee and his MAGA supporters for the network to appear biased.

Don Lemon's remarks during the interview

When Grim accused the network's coverage, during the time Lemon was employed, of sounding "kind of like a Democratic mouthpiece," the latter responded by saying, "I don't agree with the premise of what you're saying and when people put it in that context. We all view life through a certain lens, whether you're a journalist or not… It is actually okay to be a journalist and have an opinion. There's opinion journalism. So I don't believe in that BS about, you know, journalists just have to sit there and go, ‘What do you think, what do you think, okay, fine'.'That's not how it works… That was the zenith, I believe, of CNN during that time."

"And it may have looked that we had moved to the left or that, you know, we were somehow becoming an arm of the Democratic Party," he continued. "That was only because of the Republican side, and mostly Donald Trump and the MAGA wing of the Republican Party. The facts were not on their side. So by the simple fact of pointing out that someone is lying, that you're getting misinformation, it may make people think that, ‘Oh, my God, you must be on the Democrat side'. No, you're on the side of truth."

Jashinsky hit back at Lemon with criticism of the Russiagate coverage, to which he said, "The Russia coverage on CNN was good. I think the Russia coverage in the media was good. I don't think that it was bad. You may disagree with it. That's your bias. But actually, the coverage was good. And I think that people are smart enough to discern what's true and what's not, what's real and what's not. And so, I don't think that the coverage was that bad. I don't fall into that category. And I think people were - look, I think people sort of romanticize the time that we were in, like people romanticize, you know, COVID and the protocols that were in place, and this was bad, and that was bad. They don't remember the time that we were in."

"I think that the media did the best job that they could at the time. I don't think that it was terrible. We can always look back, you know, being armchair quarterback, Monday morning quarterback and saying, ‘Oh, you should have done this.' Shoulda woulda coulda. We didn't. And again, my advice (is to) accept things the way that they are, learn your lesson and move on… And people will say I was wrong. I think where I was, if we made a mistake and we got something wrong, we would say it," he added.

Internet reacts to Don Lemon's remarks

Netizens slammed the journalist for his views, as the following comments on Facebook over the news indicate.

"Perfect representative of left lunacy!" wrote a user.

"Lunacy is strong in LemonHead," jibed another.

"He'll say anything to get his old job back..." chided one user.

"That lemon should be so embarrassed of himself" mocked another.

"He just another sellout, to the American people," commented a user.

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.