https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Axn5OWC-sJs
Amid President Donald Trump’s claim that President Obama wiretapped Trump Tower, Don Lemon is shutting down the excuses his supporters have made for his lies.
After outlining Trump’s falsehoods, including his claim that Obama is not American and that there were three million to five million illegal voters during the election, Lemon challenged contributor Salena Zito’s idea that people know to take Trump seriously but not literally.
“It makes no sense when you’re the President of the United States if people can’t believe the words that come out of your mouth,” Lemon says on the Tuesday, March 7, broadcast of “CNN Tonight.” “People want to believe what their president says and many people cannot; no one can because it’s actually not true.”
Zito told the story of a “staunch liberal” woman who voted for Trump and said she was appreciative of his salesman-like speech.
“There’s this expectation of hyperbole and it’s part of what we wanted,” Zito said. “We wanted someone that not only was gonna blow up the system but just not talk like a perfectly measured politician and that’s what they got.”
“With all due respect to that woman, that is divorced from reality,” Lemon said, to which Zito claimed the past 30 years of American politics has pushed people to feel the way the constituent felt.
“No one should be pushed to ever believe something that’s not true,” the anchor replies. “If someone is telling you the truth, it’s backed up by facts and by research. And so, if you are a person who is not divorced from reality and you have all your wits about you, then you need to believe the truth. Basically, we are making excuses for people who are divorced from reality. I know that’s hard to hear, but it’s the truth.”
