Don Lemon unleashes on Kanye for Trump meeting: 'I saw a minstrel show today

CNN host Don Lemon melted down in frustration over coverage of Kanye West's meeting with President Donald Trump on Thursday at the White House.

West covered a wide range of topics in the sometimes rambling conversation with Trump, who appeared to mostly listen as West talked to him and the gathered media.

That media attention was part of Lemon's anger with the situation.

"This has nothing to do with being a liberal or a conservative," Lemon said during a CNN interview. "This has to do with honesty. And we have to stop pretending, sitting here on these CNN panels or whatever network panels, and pretending like this is normal and let's have this conversation about Kanye West. Who cares? Why are you sending cameras to the Oval Office for Kanye West?"

Lemon decried that when the rapper Common visited President Barack Obama's White House, the only ones to cover it were "Sean Hannity and his band of hypocrites who are now applauding Kanye West."

'I couldn't even watch it'

Lemon was appalled by the scene in the Oval Office on Thursday, and said he had a hard time even watching coverage of the meeting.

"What I saw was a minstrel show today," Lemon said. "Him in front of all these white people, mostly white people, embarrassing himself and embarrassing Americans, but mostly African-Americans because every one of them is sitting either at home or with their phones, watching this, cringing.

"I couldn't even watch it," Lemon finished. "I had to turn the television off because it was so hard to watch."

Lemon also said that West's late mother "is rolling over in her grave" over the rapper's behavior.

There was also some hand-wringing over Kanye's use of profanity in the Oval Office.

"Can you imagine if President Barack Obama had Kanye West or any rapper or any person, entertainer in the Oval Office who said 'MF'? Can you imagine?" Lemon asked. "Everybody's heads would be exploding. Not just over at Fox News, not just the conservatives, everybody's heads would be exploding saying, what's happening?"