It’s early in Election Day proceedings, but Don Lemon is working as if he’s holding forth on his regular CNN late-evening show.
Speaking with Erin Burnett in the afternoon on CNN, Lemon questioned whether the AT&T-owned cable-news network should have aired live comments from President Donald Trump, saying the president’s remarks were tantamount to “propaganda” that people who had yet to vote might have heard. “Not much of anything he said was true,” said Lemon, co-anchoring during a daytime slot as part of a special schedule of CNN programming on Election Day.
Lemon also noted he felt the president seemed “tired” at the end of the campaign trail, He and Burnett discussed whether Trump might in fact try to declare some sort of victory early in the night as the polls were being counted.
Media critics have for years debated about the utility and value of carrying President Trump live, without the ability to check the facts of what he says immediately, because he has demonstrated time and again that he will rely on falsehoods, conspiracy theories and stream-of-consciousness patter in response to serious questions about national affairs.
Lemon made headlines earlier this week for saying that he has stopped being friends with people who support Trump.
“I had to get rid of them because they’re too far gone. I try and I try and I try, they say something really stupid and then I’ll show them the science and I’ll give them the information, and they still repeat those talking points,” Lemon told his colleague Chris Cuomo. “I had to get rid of a lot of people in my life because sometimes you’ve just got to let them go.”