CNN host Don Lemon is still pretending he’s always been critical of the radical left’s soft approach to crime. But not too long ago, he was actually mocking concerns about rising crime. He took his own hypocrisy over to New Day this morning, to praise liberal officials who were doing an about face on defunding the police as well.
Co-hosts Brianna Keilar, John Berman and guest Don Lemon were admiring Democrat Mayor London Breed of San Francisco for cracking down on crime, saying she would be taking steps to address the wave plaguing her city including refunding the police.
Berman and Lemon hyped how Lemon had always been critical of the far-left’s treatment of the police: “It sounded like an episode of Don Lemon Tonight, right?” Berman stated. Lemon agreed, “You’ve heard me say this stuff. It isn’t very popular,” he boasted. He added:
She's absolutely right. It is what we have been saying, what we have been saying during the pandemic, about the rise in crime. It is what -- it is what I have always said about crime. It is what we are experiencing here in New York City.
But neither would call out Breed for her hypocritical reversal, after she had proudly defunded her city's police department, during the Summer 2020 Black Lives Matter riots. Maybe that's because Lemon also was downplaying crime to defend BLM at the time.
Instead, Lemon touted how the Democrat was doing what most black Americans and liberals want: to feel safe in their own communities: [click "expand"]
African Americans want good police officers. They want police officers, a trained police officer to show up when they call police. People in cities, in urban areas, want that. They don't want, you know, officers that is going to abuse them. They don't want to defund police.
So I think what someone like London Breed who is in a historically liberal city, I think what they're finally realizing is that the silent majority is not the young people who, you know, don't want people to, you know, want all this bail reform and all -- that's not what people want. That's not what quite frankly that's not what most liberal people in this country want. Most people in this country are somewhere in the center. And they want police officers, they don't want police officers that is going to abuse them, they don’t want crime. You ask people the single most important thing for them, they will say it is money and the economy, but for the most part, people want to feel safe when they're walking down the streets, they want to feel safe in their homes, when they leave their homes, they want to be safe, and if that can't happen, then you should not be in public service. If you can't make that happen as a leader, as a politician, as someone who is a head of a city, someone in charge of crime, then you're not doing your job.
Lemon could’ve pointed out how Breed and the SF District Attorney’s radical left policies on crime failed. But instead he accused the right and Fox News for making crime a political ploy:
So I think -- I think, it is not very popular, that people need to stop listening to the people who have gone all the way far left and saying, oh, well, we want to defund the police, we need this bail reform and these people– People who are violent, people who commit crime should be in jail. They should be behind bars. They should not be out on the streets.
…[I]t has got to be a holistic approach. Can't just be about putting a big hammer on crime. But it is -- we have to figure out how people got there, to where they are, and, you know, that's something that people don't like to think about politically, don't like to talk about politically because it is not easy, right? It is not -- it doesn't help them within their re-election bid. It doesn't help them if you're on, you know, some propaganda network and you're trying to use crime as a cudgel to talk about the difference between the liberal policies and conservative policies.
This is why no one takes CNN seriously. New Day, especially takes particular enjoyment in ripping hypocrisy from Republicans, but the journalists refuse to do the same for Democrats. Months later, they try to make their audience’s forget their own hypocrisy, too.
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Read transcript portions below:
CNN
New Day
12/16/21
DON LEMON: She's absolutely right. It is what we have been saying, what we have been saying during
the pandemic, about the rise in crime. It is what -- it is what I have always said about crime. It is what we are experiencing here in New York City...I hope he [Eric Adams] lives up to it. Everyone is saying, my gosh, New York City needs it. Let's put that to the side. But it is what we're experiencing here–people or across the country–African Americans want good police officers. They want police officers, a trained police officer to show up when they call police. People in cities, in urban areas, want that. They don't want, you know, officers that is going to abuse them. They don't want to defund police.
So I think what someone like London Breed who is in a historically liberal city, I think what they're finally realizing is that the silent majority is not the young people who, you know, don't want people to, you know, want all this bail reform and all -- that's not what people want. That's not what quite frankly that's not what most liberal people in this country want. Most people in this country are somewhere in the center. And they want police officers, they don't want police officers that is going to abuse them, they don’t want crime. You ask people the single most important thing for them, they will say it is money and the economy, but for the most part, people want to feel safe when they're walking down the streets, they want to feel safe in their homes, when they leave their homes, they want to be safe, and if that can't happen, then you should not be in public service. If you can't make that happen as a leader, as a politician, as someone who is a head of a city, someone in charge of crime, then you're not doing your job.
So I think -- I think, it is not very popular, that people need to stop listening to the people who have gone all the way far left and saying, oh, well, we want to defund the police, we need this bail reform and these people– People who are violent, people who commit crime should be in jail. They should be behind bars. They should not be out on the streets.
BRIANNA KEILAR: But I do -- I wonder, Don, because what she is saying– this isn't about liberal policies. At the same time, what she is proposing is increasing police, let's -- that's really the crux of what she's been proposing. With a specific eye to the Tenderloin, if you've been to San Francisco, you know this neighborhood, high crime and also a lot of drug use, a lot of untreated mental health issues and --
LEMON: Homelessness, a big issue, people who are out on the streets, and a lot of those people have been put out on the streets recently because of the pandemic.They had them in facilities and because of, remember, cutting costs, cutting money to facilities that house people like that, we have to think about all of those things, it has got to be a holistic approach. Can't just be about putting a big hammer on crime. But it is -- we have to figure out how people got there, to where they are, and, you know, that's something that people don't like to think about politically, don't like to talk about politically because it is not easy, right? It is not -- it doesn't help them within their re-election bid. It doesn't help them if you're on, you know, some propaganda network and you're trying to use crime as a cudgel to talk about the difference between the liberal policies and conservative policies.
So there needs to be a holistic approach to crime. How people got to where they are, why they are in those communities, why they have been let out of those facilities, what is happening with mental illness, and also putting more and better police officers who are responsible to the community on the streets and having people who are in positions of power, like London Breed, like Eric Adams here in New York City, who are going to make sure that they accomplish those goals.
