On Wednesday, CNN host Don Lemon’s Trump hatred was too “petty” even for Chris Cuomo, Lemon’s colleague and no fan of Trump.
“You’re petty and small,” Cuomo blurted out to Lemon during a segment highlighted by the Washington Examiner concerning the funeral service for former President George H.W. Bush, who passed away last Saturday.
Lemon told Cuomo that if he were in the same position as the Obamas, he would not shake the Trumps’ hands.
“I’m going to say that I don’t think I would shake hands with him. I would just — nope, couldn’t do it. I’m not that big a person,” said Lemon. “I would hope that I would be, but I don’t — I can’t fake the funk as they say.”
“They showed the ultimate respect for the office,” he continued. “They do not have to show respect for someone who does not respect them.”
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump greeted their predecessors with handshakes on Wednesday as they first arrived to the Washington National Cathedral for the funeral service.
Lemon went as far as demonstrating the hypothetical Trump-snub by calling up a producer to act out an attempt to shake his hand on-air. The CNN host offered a head nod in response to the handshake proposition.
This was too much even for the highly partisan Cuomo, who repeatedly reminded Lemon that the highest office in the United States is bigger than personal feuds.
“You are petty and small,” Cuomo told his colleague.
Lemon dismissed Cuomo’s take on his hypothetical snub and used Trump’s past so-called “birther” claims as his rationale.
“I’m not petty and small. That’s real, brother. That’s real,” said Lemon, before Cuomo interrupted: “Real petty and small!”
“This is not about ideology,” Lemon argued. “This is about the way someone conducts themselves. If you constantly called me names, and you were rude to me, and you — why should I have to show you respect at all?”
“[The Obamas] showed that love and their decency and respect wins, and they brought [Trump] in, even though he tried to keep them out,” Cuomo responded, working in his own Trump slight, too.
“Just call me Petty Mc-petty,” said Lemon cheerfully. The Obamas “are a lot classier than I am,” he added.
“It’s about respecting the presidency. George H.W. Bush was a president, and it’s that you can’t be about your own petty grievances. You represent the American people, and you should wear that on your sleeve, everyday,” Cuomo offered.
Lemon was unmoved. “An office is not a human being. I don’t think it’s respect for the human being if you talk smack about them, if you say the nastiest things about them, if you treat them as subhuman, and then you want to show up at their funeral. Really? Hell to the no,” he said.
Someone at the event was apparently on the same page as Lemon: twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. As noted by The Daily Wire on Wednesday, video appears to show Mrs. Clinton snubbing First Lady Melania Trump at the beginning of the service for late President Bush.
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