CNN's Don Lemon gave his own critique of President Donald Trump's speech at his Phoenix rally, and it was decidedly negative. That prompted many to take to social media and strike back against his assessment.
"Well, what do you say to that?" Lemon asked rhetorically. "I'm just gonna speak from the heart here.
"What we have witnessed is a total eclipse of the facts," he said. "Someone who came out on stage and lied directly to the American people. And left things out that he said in an attempt to rewrite history especially when it comes to Charlottesville.
"He's unhinged," he said. "It's embarrassing, and I don't mean for us, the media because he went after us, but for the country. This is who we elected president of the United States? A man who is so petty that he has to go after people who he deems to be his enemy like the imaginary friend of a 6-year-old?
"His speech was without thought," Lemon added. "It was without reason. It was devoid of facts. It was devoid of wisdom. There was no gravitas. There was no sanity there. He was like a child blaming a sibling on something else.
"He did it, I didn't do it," Lemon mocked. "He certainly opened up the race wound from Charlottesville. A man clearly wounded by the rational people who are abandoning him in droves, meaning those businesspeople."
"Well, what do you say to that?" Don Lemon responds to Trump's speech, calling it a "total eclipse of the facts" https://t.co/XS4x3LyoMP
— The Situation Room (@CNNSitRoom) August 23, 2017
"And the people in Washington now who are questioning his fitness for office and whether he is stable," he continued. "A man backed into a corner it seems by circumstances outside his control and beyond his understanding.
"That's the truth. If you watch that speech as an American," he explained, "you have to be thinking,'what in the world is going on? This is the person we elected as the president of the United States? This petty? This small?'
"A person who's supposed to pull the country together?" he concluded. "It certainly didn't happen there."
The president's fans and allies on social media immediately assailed Lemon for his comments criticizing Trump.
Don Lemon, who spent a month wondering if a black hole ate Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, calls Trump "unhinged." 😂😂 https://t.co/KwYbCtBD52
— Newt-Trump Fan Club (@NewtTrump) August 23, 2017
Don Lemon is the most pathetic excuse for an American I think I've ever seen. He's completely dullusionial
— BRIAN FRASER (@bfraser747) August 23, 2017
Trump included numerous points in his rally speech in Phoenix. He assured the crowd that his famed wall would be built, and repeated his claim that he had done more than any president by this time in his term. He also appeared to criticize Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake (R), but he did not mention him by name.
