Fox News star Tucker Carlson became famous for his take-no-prisoners, no-nonsense approach — and he didn’t hold back on CNN star Don Lemon on Monday.
In a brutal takedown, Carlson fired at Lemon over a recent Washington Post opinion piece. Carlson accused him of hypocrisy — and Lemon fired back.
“Mr. Don Lemon is a cable news host on our competitor, CNN, and most of the time he talks about cable news host-type things. ‘What are the Royals up to?’ or ‘How a commercial airliner might have flown into a black hole.’ You know, the news,” Carlson’s segment began.
“But Don Lemon is, more importantly, more than that,” Carlson said, sarcastically calling Lemon a “civil rights leader.”
Carlson quoted the CNN star after Lemon, who told The Washington Post that America is “living in two different realities as Black and White people.”
“Here’s a guy who makes millions of dollars a year for presiding over a show that is failing… that seems like a pretty good deal,” Carlson retorted. “But, like so many, Don Lemon is also a victim.”
Carlson wondered how oppressed Lemon was — so the Fox News star said “we did a little digging and here are the details.”
“Don Lemon lives in a $4.3 million home in Sag Harbor, New York. No, he does not live in Section Eight housing. He lives in one of the whitest towns in America.”
“In fact, 80% [white]. Sag Harbor is just 3% African-American,” Carlson reveals. “In the interview, Mr. Lemon said America needs to see more people like him. He regularly lectures America about diversity.”
“What he didn’t tell The Washington Post is that in his free time he runs away from diversity. His reality is that he doesn’t like diversity at all. None of them do.”
Carlson then shared a picture that shows Lemon in his mansion’s kitchen with a “Mammy Jar” — an antique cookie jar that The New York Times said “mocks” people of color with “ugly stereotypes.”
“I tell everyone to do their own thinking,” Dr. Pilgrim of the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia told The New York Times in a 2016 article titled “Confronting Racist Objects”
“But, you know, I wish more people – in respectful, civil ways – would challenge not just the presence of these pieces but what the pieces represent, and ask the question of their neighbors: Why?”
Carlson sarcastically claimed the jar must be a symbol that Lemon believes in white supremacy.
“What is this, this symbol of hate posing as a cookie jar, doing in Don Lemon’s kitchen?” Carlson asked viewers. “Do you see that? That right there, ladies and gentlemen, is a white supremacist QAnon cookie jar.”
“Now we are not calling for the Department of Justice to look more deeply into this because that’s not our place,” he said. “We’re a cable news show, not a law enforcement agency.”
“But let’s put it this way: If you find yourself with a black face cookie jar in your own kitchen, it’s time to reflect,” he concluded. “That means you, Don Lemon.”
The CNN host fired back on Tuesday in his own segment.
“I just want to fill you in on something that is going on at the Fox propaganda network,” Lemon told viewers. “I don’t usually respond to these things. I don’t like to punch down and I’d rather focus on issues on this show that are important to you, other than someone taking potshots at me.”
He focused on Carlson’s reference to the Section Eight comment, a Housing Choice Voucher Program that gives low-income applicants rental subsidies.
“Section Eight housing? Let me simply just say this. If you think that a Black person who doesn’t live in public housing can’t experience or understand racism in this country… well, that says much more about you and your ignorance on these issues than it does about me,” Lemon said.
The Horn editorial team