News

Cuomo, Lemon Double Down In Defense Of Officer Who Shot Ma’Khia Bryant

   DailyWire.com
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 15: Chris Cuomo of CNN’s Cuomo Prime Time attends the WarnerMedia Upfront 2019 arrivals on the red carpet at The Theater at Madison Square Garden on May 15, 2019 in New York City. 602140
Mike Coppola/Getty Images for WarnerMedia

Both Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo maintain their stance on the shooting of 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant, doubling down on their assertion that the Ohio police officer had little choice but to shoot her in order to protect a black teenage girl.

During a segment on Thursday night, Cuomo and Lemon agreed that not every police shooting in America should be treated with a broad brush and that people need to look at the evidence before making snap judgments.

“We cannot treat all police shootings in the same way,” asserted Lemon, as reported by Newsbusters.

“You’re absolutely right. We can’t do that,” responded Cuomo.

“They’re 100 percent not equal. And the poor mom that you had on, I feel for her, but not every police shooting is the same, and we have to look at the evidence and what we know,” added Lemon.

Lemon noted that if the officer did not react in the time that he did, the young girl who Bryant was assaulting could have been killed, resulting in two tragic deaths instead of one.

“I think it was like seven seconds, seven or nine seconds that the officer had to react. It is tragic. It is terrible. But, imagine if the woman in the pink was your loved one, and the officer didn’t do what he did,” said Lemon. “You could be mourning the death of that woman, that young lady in the pink.”

To those who assert that the police officer should have shot Bryant’s leg, Lemon noted that police have to fully neutralize a person once they are in the process of potentially killing another person. While he agrees with debates about how police should be deployed in given situations, he did not see how this situation fits into the narrative.

“As it stands now, that’s what it is,” Lemon said. “And people, you know, ‘shoot in the leg.’ People don’t stab people with their feet. They’re stabbing with their arms and their upper body. So, the officer is shooting to neutralize the threat.”

“And, again, everyone’s — what about a taser? Tasers don’t always work in these situations,” said Lemon.

“Tasers don’t always work, full stop,” added Cuomo.

On Thursday, “The View” co-host Joy Behar openly disagreed with Don Lemon, arguing that the police should have shot the air.

“My feeling is, I don’t know if that’s true or not. I really can’t figure it out anymore,” Behar said in response to Don Lemon.

Behar said that there is “something wrong” if the only solution to someone potentially killing another human is to use deadly force.

“I mean, it seems to me in a situation — this is what it looked to me. And I looked at the tape and still can’t figure it out,” she continued. “Shoot the gun in the air as a warning. Tase a person. Shoot them in the leg. Shoot them in the behind. Stop them somehow. But if the only solution is to kill a teenager, there’s something wrong with this. There’s something very, very wrong with the way these things are being conducted. Even if the cop had to do it, there’s something wrong with it. I can’t explain it any better than that.”

She added, “We keep talking about this over and over again, and kids still keep getting shot. It’s like the gun issue in this country. People keep getting shot, and nothing ever gets done about it. It’s [a] very frustrating conversation to have. I can’t add much to it.”

Related: Joy Behar: Ohio Cop Should Have Shot The Air

Got a tip worth investigating?

Your information could be the missing piece to an important story. Submit your tip today and make a difference.

Submit Tip
The Daily Wire   >  Read   >  Cuomo, Lemon Double Down In Defense Of Officer Who Shot Ma’Khia Bryant