Former CNN host Don Lemon was humbled after bringing up his race and sexual orientation during a segment on “Real Time with Bill Maher” on Friday.
Lemon spoke to Maher on a panel with New York University professor Scott Galloway about the ongoing anti-Israel protests taking place on several college campuses nationwide.
All three men criticized the protests as antisemitic, with Lemon referring to them as part of a “fad.” However, Lemon suggested that the protests could be a learning experience for the students.
“I’m not minimizing what’s going on, but it teaches some of these students to deal with discomfort,” Lemon said.
While Galloway and Maher agreed to an extent, Lemon tried to elaborate.
“Listen, I’m different than you guys. I’m a Black gay man, so I live in uncomfortable spaces all the time. And I think that’s a good lesson for college students,” Lemon said.
“Why? What’s going on?” Maher asked.
“College is not a comfortable place. You learn –” Lemon began.
“No, but you said you live in those spaces. Just tell me what,” Maher said.
Lemon said, “I’m often the only person of color in the room.”
“There’s only three of us here. Come on,” Maher said as the audience began laughing and cheering.
Prior to his appearance on “Real Time,” the former CNN anchor was referenced by one of Maher’s guests in 2023 following Lemon’s controversial remarks about Republican then-presidential candidate Nikki Haley.
“As Don Lemon told us on CNN, women actually can’t run for president because he said we’re past our prime once we get to our 40s. But since you have to be 35 to run, it’s like this really tiny window between 35 and 40,” ABC News contributor Sarah Isgur joked.
At the top of his Friday show, Maher criticized the anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian protests in a lengthy monologue, decrying them as what happens when “activism merges with narcissism.”
“You’d have to be pretty dumb to think that the way to bring people around to your point of view is to make them late to pick up their kids from day care. And that’s what most normies are thinking, ‘I have a kid. I have a job. And yes, I’m sure there are injustices on both sides in the Middle East as there are injustices all over the world, but I’m going to be late for work,’ something you protesters on the bridge seemed to have the luxury of not having to worry about, which seems kind of privilege,” Maher said.
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