CNN’s Don Lemon says Trump rhetoric responsible for threats against network
On Tuesday night, CNN host Don Lemon personally addressed President Trump in an emotional monologue in which he told the president he is partially responsible for recent death threats against the cable news network’s staff.
Lemon was reporting on the arrest of Brandon Griesemer of Novi, Mich., who “made approximately 22 total calls to CNN” on Jan. 9 and 10, threatening its employees, according to an arrest affidavit released on Monday.
“Fake news. I’m coming to gun you all down,” Griesemer allegedly said during one call to the network’s Atlanta headquarters, according to the affidavit. In another call, he said, “I am on my way right now to gun the f‑‑‑in’ CNN cast down. F‑‑‑ you.”
[‘Fake news. I’m coming to gun you all down’: Mich. man accused of making threatening calls to CNN]
“There’s nothing random about this. Nothing,” Lemon said Tuesday. “This is what happens when the president of the United States, Donald Trump, repeatedly attacks members of the press simply for reporting facts he does not like.”
He then addressed the president directly.
“I’ve heard from a number of very credible sources from within the White House that you watch this show,” Lemon said. “So, Mr. President, I’m going to speak directly to you.”
“The caller who threatened to kill CNN employees made his threat using these words: ‘Fake news. I’m coming to gun you all down,'” said Lemon. He then paused before reflecting: “Fake news. I wonder where he got those words.”
Trump has tweeted the term “fake news” at least 50 times since his inauguration in 2017. As Lemon noted, Trump tweeted the term “Fake News CNN” early Tuesday morning. News of the threats against CNN became public Monday evening.
As The Washington Post’s Kyle Swenson wrote, “The term, trumpeted by the president in his frequent clashes with the press, has become a popular rallying cry among Trump’s base. CNN has been a regular target of the president’s ‘fake news’ attacks; the president has also shared violent images featuring the cable news giant, including pictures of the CNN logo crushed under a shoe and a GIF of the president personally attacking the CNN logo.”