Don Lemon Responds to Being Arrested and Put On Trump’s “Enemies List”

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Hey everybody, it's Tim more over in the bulwark.

Over the weekend, I had the pleasure of interviewing Don Lemon here in New Orleans.

I adopted home. He's from Louisiana.

We were in the basketball arena at Tulane and I had a great crowd for 9 a.m.

Hard to get up in 9 a.m. in Louisiana.

And I got to see him for the first time since the Trump regime targeted him.

We talked about that.

I didn't really know the full backstory about how he was detained and arrested.

What happened to him when he was being held.

So we got into all that.

We also talked about independent media.

You just go check him out.

If you haven't over on his YouTube feed and talked about news of the day.

Got a little heavy at some point.

So I also decided we needed to do some little lighter fare.

Have some jokes for the people.

So I hope you enjoy it.

It was really great.

Shout out to Cheryl Landrew, who puts on this festival every year here in New Orleans.

And for letting us repurpose this for y'all.

So stick around for me and Don Lemon.

Not a town. How many of them out of town?

What in the hell are you doing?

They're all here for Tim.

Look at all the people who came to see us.

You did not do New Orleans correct.

If you're in from out of town and you're at this panel at 9 a.m.

I'm sorry.

You got to fix that tonight.

Good morning.

How are you?

Good morning.

Yes.

How many lemon heads in the house?

A elimination brother.

Thanks for doing this, Tim.

Why didn't you bring me any swag?

I could get you some swag.

I like some swag.

We're going to start with this.

Let's pull out the pants.

Do you have an ankle bracelet?

No, all right.

That's a free man right there.

Not that I know of, but I did.

I did, you know, I'm lotion.

That is a free man.

Yeah.

Boy.

I had to be pretty fucking weird.

You know?

Can I tell you something weird?

I'm sitting in the hotel room here.

And I did my show from the room.

Yeah.

And, you know, after the show, I look up and I had MS now on what you appear on.

And I think all she had, the president sort of enemies list up there with all the people who had,

he had, you know, targeted us to fail.

And then it had Don Lemon indicted.

I was like, why am I up there?

I said, this is weird.

I'm like up there with like Tish James.

Like it's weird.

Like, did they give you a heads up?

Like, were you in your underwear?

Like what?

Uh, no.

No heads up.

No heads up.

No, and look, I can just so you guys know, how are you?

I can only talk about what's public.

I can't talk, discuss much of the details of whatever.

But anything that's out there, I don't mind talking about it.

And we can talk a little bit about the prison food.

Yeah, you can ask me whatever you want.

But the thing is, is that, you know, I had heard them,

excuse me, I was just changing this morning.

I'd heard them talk about, you know, they were on TV

right after it happened, and saying, you know, Don Lemon,

Don Lemon, and so I got an attorney.

My attorney sent them a letter saying, if you're serious,

and hey, we're ready, let himself report, turn himself in.

Yeah.

Never heard back from them.

And so the idea, the motivation is to embarrass you.

Yeah.

Right?

And as I said, when I was released from the Pokey,

the process is the punishment.

Yeah.

That's what they want to do.

They want to embarrass you.

They want to take you through, but you know, they want to,

you know, diminish your finances, diminish your ability

to be able to make money, your credibility, your reputation,

all of that.

It's really maniacal.

So how long are you in there?

Like, I've only been in one time.

What did you do?

Well, I had a minor in possession of alcohol when I was 18.

And then I didn't go to the classes.

And then I got a traffic arrest in Veil.

And they're like, you have a warrant out for your arrest.

She didn't go to your alcohol classes.

So I was in the Veil camp.

I should be interviewing YouTube.

I was in there for about three hours, and I got a t-shirt out of it.

But I still have it.

It has the elevation on it.

Yeah.

The Veil jail is not exactly where the heavy hitters are.

I was OK.

But what was your experience?

It was, I was in there overnight.

I think it was from about midnight to, so about, about 12 hours,

11, 12 hours.

Yeah.

Midnight to, I think, noon the next day.

Yeah.

That's right.

Like by yourself?

Yeah.

Did you make some friends?

I've seen Banta made some jail friends.

No, I did not make any jail friends.

I was in a holding room.

Never like an official cell, luckily.

But I will tell you that the folks who, not the people who arrested me,

they were jerks.

Yeah.

But the people who were in charge of me, and when they're in the holding part of it,

and processing, they could not have been kinder.

I had the same experience.

You did.

You had the same experience.

Yeah.

They keep what's mean.

So I know we talk a lot about federal agents and all of that.

But those guys, there are career professionals who work for the Department of Homeland Security,

who are not the goons who are out there with 47 days experience,

robbing people of their due process rights, different people.

And they don't like being associated with those people.

You can tell, and we've talked about this a little bit.

I'm interested in your view that I'm like of, I'm of multiple minds about this.

But your situation, but also everybody's.

Jim Comey's and Tissue.

Everybody on the list that you saw in MSNOW.

On the one hand, I'm angry, because it's on American, and it's horrible,

and you deserve to be upset at them.

On the other hand, I kind of want to mock them, because it's been so ham-handed.

And they came in with like, we have an enemy's list,

and they've unsuccessfully jailed a single enemy.

Barack Obama walks free.

You walk free.

Tim Walls walks free.

The sandwich man walks free.

Like they're struggling.

Yeah.

And so on the one hand, I think it's better to mock them.

But on the other hand, like you're saying, the process is the penalty,

and it's wrong.

And I'm just wondering how you process that.

Well, I'm sitting here now, you know, looking back with the perspective that I have now.

We can joke about it a little, because as I say, I'm not going to let them steal my joy.

I'm from Louisiana.

And I grew up at very churchy household.

Right?

When we say, when we talk about New Orleans, we say down the road,

because it says, right up the road from Baton Rouge, or as we say, Baton Rouge.

From the ARBR.

Growing up going to, you know, everybody goes to the Catholic school.

Like when I was growing up, back in the late 60s, early 70s.

No.

Yeah.

I just turned 60.

Really?

Yes.

You look great.

Thank you.

I know.

It's all, look, it's all genetics.

Because the shit that I've been doing in Alaska.

Maybe not.

My forehead's still moving, baby.

Tim, you know what they say?

I'm trying not to say it.

Black don't crack.

I was trying to be honest with you.

But here's the thing.

Good, beige, don't age either.

And so, stay out of the sun.

No problem.

Just saying.

But, um, so, I'm not going to let them steal my joy.

I grew up with faith from a very faithful family.

And, you know, I am, I'm not churchy.

You asked me the first thing he said, did you go to church?

You still go to church?

And I said, yeah, the last time they tried to arrest me.

Sorry, the last time they arrested me for going to church.

But, um, I can joke about it now somewhat,

but these are very serious charges.

These are federal charges.

And, like, conspiracy for, like, you know, it's crazy.

It's crazy.

It's crazy.

But, yeah, it's, what perspective did I gain?

Yeah.

Is that they're a maniacal?

And, um, I believe that they are not patriots.

I believe that they are, they don't believe in the Constitution.

They don't believe in the Bill of Rights,

because otherwise, they would not be conducting themselves

in the way that they are,

and they would not be going after someone who is

who you consider your political rival,

and you're right.

They're not having much, much success if any, in any of this.

It's a waste of resources.

It's a waste of your tax dollars for the number of people

who came to arrest me and Georgia Ford

and all the other people, even in different countries.

These folks could have turned themselves in

and saved you a hell of a lot of money.

Yeah.

And, it wouldn't be all the hoopla.

But, first of all, why are they doing it anyways, you know?

Yeah, I like to mock them.

So, I want to start with that.

Okay.

Because they just, they still haven't jailed anybody,

which has, is pretty tough for them.

Zero for them.

They haven't jailed anybody for the 2020 election theft.

I've noticed either.

The one that was stolen?

Yeah, you think they'd be able to find the culprit by now?

Cash has been on that.

I know.

But we'll see.

But, Cash has got busy.

He's got, he's got locker rooms to do beer.

He does.

He's got to go see his girlfriend,

saying it, send my pro wrestling matches, on our plane.

The, you're talking about the resources and that,

that is serious, the waste of tax dollars.

But it's also like, these are, this is federal law enforcement.

There's real shit to be worried about.

We've got a war now and we're about to start talking about.

But, you know, obviously we have domestic terror threats.

We've seen that over the course of the past week.

We've got a lot of people who are experts,

who have either been fired, quit,

because they don't want to work for these guys,

or who are being redeployed, like, you know,

do perimeter work outside the home depot.

And like that's happening at the prosecutor level,

at the agent level, at the FBI level.

And like that, you know, you have to believe

that there are real consequences to that at some point.

These people do real jobs.

These people do, they're supposed to.

They're used to at least.

They do real jobs.

And that's just, that's what I mean.

They're not patriots, and they don't believe in the Constitution,

because these people are career professionals.

You see the brain drain that's going on

and all of these agencies, they are attacking very important systems

and agencies and institutions in this country.

So yes, there's a real consequence.

But just think, let's just think about it on a human level.

That you have worked your entire life to do the right thing,

because you do love this country,

and it is you are serving your country in a different way

than the military, but you're still serving your country.

And then all of a sudden you have this lawless administration,

or regime, as I like to call it,

and I like to call it an administration.

You have them come in, and there are people who are there

that just spoke to a friend last night,

who have been there for a while in mean working for the government

and working in these institutions.

And maybe they have two, three years left, right?

And they're like, I just, I'm a couple years away from retirement.

I can't change my career at this point,

and all they just want to do is hang on.

And all of these bogus bullshit indictments and all of this stuff.

Their names are on those things,

and they're like, I hope nobody notices that.

Yeah, everybody had to quit in Minneapolis,

and they don't even have prosecutors.

They tried to go after Renegades spells,

they're trying to go after a lot of people quit.

I got friends who are prosecutors and different.

The quit.

Other places like this, and they're just trying to keep their head down.

I don't want to say what district they're in,

because they're just like, I hope that nothing happens

where I live, so I can just survive this

and do my job of prosecuting actual criminals.

But you know what they're doing is they just keep prolonging these cases

because they don't have the resources to fight,

to fight to adjudicate them or whatever it is.

Or the facts.

Or the facts.

Or the facts.

But it doesn't matter.

You know, people are going down looking around Georgia,

searching around for the ballots.

I mean, those are all people that should be doing real work.

It should be doing real work.

And, should I just say it?

Let's do it.

How can you have someone who is mentioned

and who is accused of some very untruth things in the Epstein files

and still not be brought into question to be questioned

when there are heads of state and other countries

who have lost their positions who have faced consequences

simply for the association, right?

That's worse than that, actually.

We've got people actively who work for the government actively covering up.

You know, like the Pampani basically is like,

you have to give me a share file of all the times that the president

and the cabinet members are mentioned in here.

Have you noticed how quiet she's been lately?

Yeah, where is she?

The other thing you're saying about them not being patriots

is like these are our fun.

This is where my old Republican comes out.

Democrats, you know, you all care about the Constitution too,

the Democrats, but I had a pocket Constitution before I was arrested and bail.

You know, I went to a pocket Constitution phase in high school,

then a troublemaking phase, and I came back around.

Look, man, they went after you for your first amendment.

You're exercising your first amendment, right?

Alex Freddie and Renee Good are exercising their first amendment, right?

Alex Freddie is exercising his second amendment, right?

To carry that firearm.

Multiple people have been exercising their fourth amendment, right?

To not have their houses or cars, whatever, and French upon.

Like these guys are trampling over the basic fundamental rights in this country.

Luckily for you, it was just one night in jail, but like,

look at what happened to Alex Freddie.

Yeah, yeah.

And Alex and Renee and Keith Porter, right in California.

Yeah, I mean, it has real life or death consequences.

And here's the hypocrisy and the irony of it all.

We're in Iran.

Supposedly, this is one of the 10, maybe 25 excuses.

Okay, hundreds of excuses that they've given for to justify this unjustifiable war.

The protesters?

Yeah, yeah.

The protesters.

I'm going with the protesters.

They said, because they shoot protesters.

And I was like, we do too.

Yeah.

In America.

Or, you know, Maduro.

Well, he tried to steal an election.

I said, so did you.

Yeah.

So what happens if another country wants to come and arrest our leader for doing things that are unlawful?

Hey, they have set a precedent to do that.

All right, Mark Barney.

Looking at you, a man you own the crown.

Yeah.

Let's send some French lesionaires in here in this bit.

But think about it.

Think about this, Tim.

You have that.

And then you have them saying, Pete Hexet saying, well, this is how the headlines should be written.

This is how the news should go.

Should go.

What happens if he put a Fox and France co-host in the department of oil?

When he does realize, that's not how the media actually operates like Fox News.

We don't just put shit on the screen just because that's how we want it to be.

It has to be factual.

So he doesn't understand that.

But the fact that he thinks that it should be state-run media.

Isn't that, don't you find that hypocritical because that's exactly what we're supposed to be fighting against Iran?

That's why we're in this war with Iran is because they have state-run media.

They don't have a free press.

People don't have rights in the Constitution as we do.

It's a first amendment.

And so he's saying, hey, look, this is how the press should only write favorable things about this administration and the war.

It's outrageous.

Yeah, let's talk about...

Well, I want to talk about the meta conversation about the press covering the war.

But I guess before we do, just on the actual war itself.

I mean, did you get a...

Did you get a scorn off guard as me?

But I thought that Trump was...

I have a pretty low regard for Trump.

I don't know if you know that.

I expect him to make a lot of bad decisions when he got back in.

I accepted him to be corrupt.

I expected it to be a shit show.

I kind of didn't...

This was the one thing that I was like, you know, I don't think he's going to do this.

I don't think he's going to get us into a stupid, Middle East war.

And it was the fundamental case that he made against my candidate back in 2016 that he wasn't going to do that.

And I just...

I've kind of been blown away.

That he did this.

That he's doing it.

You're not?

10.

And I'm just saying, if you're not meeting my expectations...

Trump, it's like you're really...

It's really...

When did you think he wasn't going to do it?

It wasn't the time where he changed the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War.

And you're supposed to be a peacetime president and we're going to get you out of it.

Every accusation is a confession.

You know that.

And so I had...

Look, the bar is in hell for this administration.

And so I had...

I'm not surprised about that.

And this is coming from someone...

Did you know that I was a Republican in college.

I was a young Republican now.

Yes!

At LSU.

Yeah, you know, I was at LSU.

It was, you know, it was the 80s.

I'm sorry.

Everybody was doing it.

Just Reagan, Maxing, and cocaine.

It was at LSU.

Put down learning.

And ecstasy.

Okay.

Yeah.

But then, honestly, I grew up and I realized like,

okay, you know, political parties are kind of BS.

Yeah.

I'll come back up pretty soon.

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The coverage of this, though, I'm looking at your old network.

There's a lot of people doing good works.

I don't want to impune with a broad brush.

And I do think that, actually, before I start, before we do a little media criticism,

let's acknowledge something.

There's one limitation to what we're doing, an independent media.

It's like, the bullwork doesn't have a taran bureau.

We don't have the reason.

The lemon heads don't have somebody on the ground in Beirut.

We can do what we can do.

We can try to find people in the moments to hire, to bring in experts,

all that kind of stuff.

But we do bring folks in.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We can be journalists.

Of course, we do.

We do.

You need institutions that have the money and the resources and expertise to do that kind of stuff.

And no one does it better than CNN.

Yeah, and there's a lot of people doing good work at CNN.

So I want to acknowledge that.

OK.

But now it does feel like there is this sense that they have to, like, you know,

you got to hand it to the administration sometimes.

Yeah.

Like that the panel can't, like that the people covering the news can't just be blunt about what this is,

which is it's a corrupt war.

It's a stupid war.

There's no point.

They have not offered any rationale for it.

And so underneath that, just because like they did some impressive bombings,

like that, that doesn't, you know, what is, who cares?

Yeah.

And I think that, and just because God loved the Iranian diaspora people,

but like just because they're happy, like does not take away the fact that this war was, you know,

brought illegally and on false pretenses.

Yeah.

And so I just, I just don't know if they're capable of doing it in the old, in the old institutions.

Like there's this old habits.

There's still some, some sniffs of how they would have covered the shit in the 90s.

Well, I will say it's what you said.

It's right.

You're 100% right.

And I say it all the time.

I don't know if you're watching, but I say it all the time.

But I have, I think I have a bit more experience in corporate media than you do as someone who was a, you know,

prime time host of is there for almost 17 years and then NBC before that.

And can you believe I worked at Fox?

Before it was Fox News.

I worked at a, I worked at a Fox station in New York.

That was, it was a Fox ONO station.

And it was called the Fox News Exchange.

It was all the, you know, the local stations that were owned by Rupert Murdoch and those guys.

And so we would all get together and file reports and it would go into this big batch and it would go out to all the Fox stations.

This was before Fox News.

And so, anyway, so I have a long history with corporate media and you're right.

It's hard to turn that ship around because they think that's the way it should be done.

They also think mistakenly that they're going to gain an audience by trying to move a network into a certain direction.

And these days it's to move it to the right because they believe that that audience is going to come to them because I was speaking to Kevin O'Leary the other night.

And he said, well, CNN has to, they've got to come to the middle to gain more audience.

I was like, you're out of your mind. That's never going to happen.

Are you crazy?

I was like, those folks are never ever going to watch CNN.

And they're never going to watch any network that is a factual news organization.

So that's never going to happen.

So they think that they have to get an anecdote on this?

Yes, but hang on.

Can I finish my thought?

So they think that they're going to get people who, they'll have a conversation and pretend like, well, let's pretend this side is equal to that side.

And you got to give it to the administration.

When the conversation should be, this is all bullshit.

There's no rationalization. They didn't do it.

And why are you inviting these people on who are election deniers and insurrection deniers?

And people who are lying and coming on just to insult people, people who are bigots and massages.

Why are you giving them an equal platform as people who are speaking the truth?

So you're right.

And that habit is being broken.

And people have stopped watching because they see through the facade.

And people are going to say a different thing on TV than they do in the green room.

All the time.

You know that, right?

I hate this guy. He's crazy. He's out of his mind. He can never be our nominee.

And you get on camera and he's like, I love him.

And I'm like, who are you?

Yeah, I know. No, this is a hard thing because I've been wanting to have people that are at least, you know, aren't quite as TDS filled as me on the podcast.

You know, I'm in the James Carve.

You have, like, I want the TDS to rain down on me from the heavens.

Do you have TDS, do you think?

I do.

Well, I mean, that, well, no, I think that I see him clearly.

I just, I don't think you do.

I thank you, Don.

But I'm trying to bring on people that like, you know, we're all wrong sometimes.

I don't know. Maybe there's something I'm not seeing.

But it's hot.

I finally had a guy on this week.

I've been trying to get on his podcast on breaking points is a mega guy.

There's a lot of terrible views and a lot of some of the things you just laid out.

He has some of those sins.

But like, at least he is saying what do you really think?

Which is the Iran War is stupid and Trump is covering up the obscene files.

Right? Right.

That's not what CNN is doing.

Not having those people on.

Not having people come on that just no matter what Trump does, they'll say that it's great,

even if they think it's stupid.

Well, that's kind of new.

That's kind of their jobs there.

It's like, we need someone, and that's been, that's every network.

We need someone who's on the right, except for Fox.

I mean, do they have any legal, I mean, any liberal, except for Jesse Charles.

Except for Jessica, I love her.

And Harold Ford Jr. here, man.

Harold Ford Jr.

Yeah.

But no, but Harold's pretty moderate.

Like, I think we need because that, no shade to Harold, I love him, but he's pretty moderate.

But when you have a network that is that dedicated to carrying the water tip for the right,

you need like someone on the left who's that dedicated, right?

And that's what they feel that they have.

That most networks feel that they have to do that.

I think you should just get smart people who are living in reality.

Yeah.

And rather than someone who's just going to be like,

well, the president is always right.

And then make faces and laugh at the other people on the panel who are actually smarter than they are.

Here's some real talk.

Yes, we do this.

There's just no market for highbrow right wing news.

The viewers aren't there.

Can I tell you how I know this for sure?

Yeah.

We could, we could have a third person on this stage if we wanted to.

And he could answer this.

And that's Tucker Carlson.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Because when Tucker started the Daily Caller, 15 years ago now,

did you know what his stated goal was for it?

What?

He wanted to do the New York Times of the Right.

They were going to do investigative journalism, real news,

but from a right wing perspective.

That did not do very well.

Because there was no market for that.

And so what ended up happening is that Daily Caller did like hot girls

and conspiracy theories.

And now Tucker Carlson thinks that Churchill is the bad guy in World War II.

Right?

We saw the whole pipeline.

And you know who's doing really well?

Tucker Carlson, the podcast.

And you know what's not doing very well?

The national review.

And so there isn't a market for it.

Well, maybe it's a Daily Caller.

I have no idea.

It's still around.

It's still there.

Yeah.

And so that's a problem.

Let's talk about the elephants in this merger.

I mean, the Secretary of War literally said, Secretary of War.

Literally said yesterday that he can't wait for CNN to get David Ellison in.

Yeah.

Which is insane.

And that's the government ahead of our military saying that he's excited

for a new propaganda network to come in.

State-run media.

That's what I said with Pete Hicks at the one state-run media.

This administration won state-run media.

Why do you think they're going after journalists?

Why do you think they're going after...

What's I forget Miss Nathanson's first name?

Is it Renee from the Washington Post, where they rated her house?

Oh, yeah.

It's her phone.

Why do you think they're doing that?

Yeah.

So, yeah, they want state-run media.

But I have to say.

It's obvious that this is what the administration wants.

This is what MAGA wants, right?

Which means anyone who's supporting Donald Trump is MAGA,

meaning the elephants and all that.

But I have to blame that the networks themselves and the corporate overlords

and the companies that own them.

Yeah.

Because they are the ones, the gatekeepers.

Because they are the ones who are bending the knee.

The journalists don't...

They don't own anything except for this, what they say.

And what they say can get them fired.

And so, it's the gatekeepers.

Why do you think we're doing so well and independent?

Because we don't have gatekeepers.

Right.

So, they have...

I blame them.

And I mean, I have to blame even the people who are working inside

of the news organizations now who are managers.

And supervisors and whatever, the head of the network.

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Hello, Luya.

I think about it and I was like, this is a blessing in disguise.

When my friend called me and said,

Don, if I open the dictionary that says, you know, timing and lucky,

blessing in disguise, your picture is in there.

Can you imagine being there right now?

That's what I'm asking you.

I can't imagine.

If I were there right now, I would have been fired for cause.

Because I probably would have cussed some people out,

or you don't miss the makeup people and the travel budget.

No.

No, because I mean, I don't miss the makeup people.

I love those guys.

Do I miss them as well?

Yes, but I don't miss putting makeup on,

cause you don't need it.

Have you ever won makeup on your show?

No.

No.

I've never, unless I'm coming back from my show.

Sometimes I'll hang over, I'll do it.

Under eyes.

I don't do that one.

I'll come on and say, hey, everybody, good morning,

cause I do live.

I'm like, I'm a little hungover.

And I just tell them, right?

If we went out last night and had a little too many

and I get on with the news, people don't like the artifice anymore.

So, no, I can't imagine.

You don't think like, what if we have president, I don't know,

AOC in 2029 and these corporate overlords are like,

we got a tack back and they called you and are like,

I want to give you a prime time show again, what would you?

If only if they gave me a Rachel Maddo deal.

Where I get to do what I want and work, like one night away.

The most part and then come in with the stories.

Yeah, from New Orleans to everywhere.

Sitting on the balcony, on the bourbon street or something.

So, maybe I would do it.

But I will say that I worked with the best journalists.

I'm talking about the corporate overlords.

Yeah.

The best journalists in the world at CNN.

And they're journalists, as you know, doing really great things,

especially in a war zone.

And when I said that no one does it better than CNN,

I'm not necessarily talking about their domestic product.

I'm not a real fan of it right now.

But internationally, there's no one doing it better.

Clarissa Ward and all the folks who are overseas.

Gosh, who's my, I can't remember his name.

Why can't I remember a senior moment?

But who is in Iran right now on safe passage?

Yeah.

Frederick Plykin, doing great job.

Yeah.

Thinking about like kind of the inverse of you, good timing.

How about the worst timing possible to take over a news network

and install people that are unapologetic war mongers?

Not great over its CBS.

It's not.

It's like this isn't real.

Like when, right, like literally two weeks before the president started,

I mean, I have to, I was about to say the stupidest war

that I can, you know, of my lifetime.

I guess Iraq, you know, there's some conversation there.

At least they made the case for Iraq.

I mean, hell, half the Democrats in the Senate voted for Iraq.

Like in this case, it's totally pointless.

I can completely pointless war, no rationale.

And that is right at the moment.

CBS is putting people that are like, hell, yeah.

Well, that's why I said it's kind of their own fault

because I think CBS and other networks are bringing about their own demise

because there are bending the knee

and what you're supposed to be doing is fighting back

even against the people who own the corporations.

And if they, if those people were actually patriots

and they understood the Constitution, the First Amendment,

the Bill of Rights, they would not be doing what they're doing.

But I will say, and I think you can applaud if you want to.

But I will say, okay, no one.

Please clap.

Please clap.

No, that's not what I'm saying.

That's a joke.

That please clap.

Don't take it on a context.

For another time.

That was you, right?

No, it was funny.

You were there.

No, it was actually Parker's fault.

We'll do it in the greater.

Okay, that was fine.

Everybody in the room thought it was normal.

But I do, look, I have been informed by some smart people.

I mean, I say that they're going to bring about their own demise.

I think CBS news might possibly go away.

And I think that CNN will absorb that and then it'll be,

it'll basically be CNN and then CBS will be no longer.

I think that's very possible too.

There's one more on the war just like why they want the disinformation.

Like back to the substance of it, right?

And we have the bombing the girls school.

You know, luckily is absolutely the wrong word.

But because it was so obviously us, they haven't gotten away with it.

I guess it's the way they're trying to put it.

They were going to try to say that Iran did it.

Oh, I mean, they're still trying to say that.

Yeah, I know, but it's extremely him handed.

And at this point, we have video of the Tomahawks and even some people on Fox.

It seems like this is us actually.

But the president is trying to say that it wasn't us still.

Some of his biggest advocates and commentators are still trying to say we don't know for sure.

It's insane that a government, it's North Korea type behavior for the president of this country

just to lie to our face about the fact that we wrongly killed a bunch of girls

who are part of this illegal war.

But we don't really, I guess the point I'm trying to make is that is a serious crime.

But we also don't know exactly what's been happening with the other people who are injured.

We know the number of fatalities that we have in this war, American fatalities.

But there's a lot we don't know because they're lying and they're hiding from us

to a degree that is unusual.

It's not old style spin that we've seen from past administrations.

They're just lying and covering things up.

You've got Minnesota and you've got Alex Pretty and Renee Good and Keith Porter.

But then you have 175 girls.

So the lying and the covering up and not allowing the investigations to happen,

we've seen that.

We know that it happened in Minnesota and other places.

And the cover up, the cover up, it can be worse than the crime, but this is pretty bad.

What happened in that girl school is an atrocity.

It should be investigated as a possible war crime.

And we should be investigating how it happened.

If it had anything to do with intelligence, there's possibly reportedly an anthropic connection

and what the defense secretary or the secretary of war, whatever it is,

what he signed and deals or whatever that happened before that happened.

And so I think that I don't think this is something that they will not be able to get away with.

And if there is a military tribunal or a war crime or whatever,

I think that that some people in our government,

and then possibly the military, but mostly in the government,

they're going to face some consequences for it.

Yeah, I hope so eventually.

I guess, imagine that it happened anywhere else in the world.

And we know that other places that they don't have Tomahawk missiles.

And if they do, either we sold them to them,

are the fact that they got them should be concerning to us.

So there's a whole lot of stuff going on there.

And look, in wars, mistakes happen.

People die.

That's why we should have serious people in charge.

That's why you should be judicious about deciding to use violence, right?

In the past in this country, I don't want to glorify the past of America.

We've done a lot of terrible things in various conflicts.

Like even going back to Iraq, right?

I think about Abu Ghraib.

There were internal people who blew the whistle on that, right?

Scott McClellan, who was the spokesperson,

who was the Kaley McNeighney for, I guess it's my Kaley anymore words,

I'm mixing my blondes up.

Caroline Levin.

Caroline Levin, it's early.

I'm mixing my blondes up.

He was the Caroline Levin.

I mean, it's kind of crazy, the maggot.

Have you seen the maggot face?

The maggot face.

Yeah.

It's a look.

It's a look.

You know?

It's a little cultish and a little, what do you call them?

I don't know.

It's not as cultish as the shoes.

Now the men have to wear the same shoes and the ladies have to have the same lips.

Was it foreshime?

It's strange.

It's foreshime, right?

It's foreshime.

Donald Trump just discovered foreshime.

Like, we're...

But I mean, you're not old enough to remember Tom again.

Do you remember Tom again?

Anybody remember?

Was it Paul Parrot shoes?

Like, Penny Lovers?

I mean, I'm old enough to remember.

But I mean, he just discovered foreshime shoes?

Ording effects at the point.

It shows an important point, but Lauer here.

But they're all wearing them, which is frightening.

And it's like the psychological torment it must be.

I think about a house submissive.

You have to be.

To walk around and choose that don't fit.

Yeah.

To make your boss happy.

Yeah.

Like, that is...

Like, you're the secretary of state.

You know what I mean?

You know what I mean?

You know what I mean?

Like, you're the secretary of state.

And you're walking around and clown shoes.

Your foot is sliding around.

And like, you've got to have serious meetings.

And you're like, man, I have blisters.

And it's like...

But you know why they don't fit.

You know why they don't fit.

You know why they don't fit.

Because you lied about the size.

You wanted the boss to think he had bigger feet.

I didn't think about it.

But he's a...

Let's hold that thought.

Because they're not wearing the right socks.

They should be wearing some compression socks.

And make it a little thicker.

And maybe they would fit.

Because, you know, along with the shoes go the cancels.

Yeah, yeah.

We'll tell him our secret about that.

So they put that.

But, I mean, Donald Trump is obsessed with size.

Donald Trump is shoe size.

Yeah.

Donald Trump is the gayest president.

I think that we...

And he talks about all the time.

He's like, oh, and these guys.

They were straight out of central casting.

They were so handsome.

You know, built.

And I'm like...

He would...

He would dominate me in Broadway trivia.

Like, he would run circles around me in Broadway trivia.

It's so...

It's so...

He's...

The makeup.

It's the gayest thing I've...

Yeah.

And another thing back to the Mar-a-Laga face.

I promise you we're going to come back to Scott McClellan.

On the Mar-a-Laga face.

They look like drag queens, too.

It's like a...

The aesthetic is of drag queen aesthetic.

You know, the big lips, the big lashes.

The everything.

Yeah.

It's very...

But it's also very like...

Showbiz, Broadway.

Yeah.

Right?

But it is like drag queens.

But you know, I have...

Honestly, I have friends who are in media.

And they say, I learned how to do my makeup for drag queens.

Because you can drag queens without a pain on a whole face.

Oh, yeah.

And they can show you how to work some makeup.

So I think the Mar-a-Laga folks...

But a lot of people with whole new faces.

Yeah, but I look...

I don't know insult to drag queens.

It has become clownish for these women, though now,

with the Mar-a-Laga face.

They look like clowns.

Yeah.

I mean, have you seen...

What was the one Don Jr.'s ex-girlfriend?

Kim?

Wow.

Wow.

I've never seen...

And Chris, you know him has a whole new face.

Yeah.

I'm pro plastic surgery.

Look, people got to do whatever they want to do to make themselves feel good.

I'm pro.

If you want to do gender affirming care, that's fine with me.

But I do think it's a strategy.

Well, I'm not talking about plastic surgery.

I'm talking about just the makeup.

Yeah.

I don't know what surgery they have.

There's some surgery happening.

I think it's a strange thing to decide.

I want to wake up one day and look in the mirror and have a whole new face.

My friends from high school don't even recognize me anymore.

Because I have a whole new face.

There's a compulsion there.

You know what, though.

If you did what they did, you probably couldn't look at yourself in the mirror, either.

That's a good point.

Especially, Chris, you've got to change your face in order to be able to...

Especially, Chris, you know.

Can you believe this woman went down to El Salvador to a foreign gulag

and did us...

Like a pin-up girl, snuff photo, in front of people that we had wrongly sent there.

Yeah.

It turned out to actually not be.

That was the Salvadoran situation in front of.

But like we sent these Venezuelans who did nothing, based on their tattoos,

who came to this country, fleeing communism.

Speaking of your Reagan-maxing from the 80s, these people were fleeing communism.

Looking for freedom.

Coming to the shining city on the hill, we grabbed them and said,

No, we're going to send you to a gulag in El Salvador.

And we're going to have our stone-faced secretary of homeland security

do a fucking photo shoot in front of you, like your animals.

It's sick.

That's serious.

Sick person.

It is.

It is sick.

And she could have used the makeup artist that you interviewed to help understand.

Yeah, I agree, yeah.

Who would have helped her out?

I mean, imagine what these people had to go through or still are going through.

And many of them, the people that they rounded up, are US citizens, by the way.

Yeah, some of them.

And some of them have been some US citizens have been shipped off to places

or in detention for no reason.

Yeah.

And from the very beginning, I went to Chicago early part of this.

And I started interviewing people and they were like,

Don, I'm a US citizen.

I was born here in Chicago.

I had my birth certificate and all this stuff in the house, and they didn't want to see it.

And so you have that, and you have Chrissy Nome standing in front of that jail cell

with the shaved heads and the prison outfits for what, for a show?

But you know, karma is a bitch.

And every, every dog has its day and sometimes too.

And I think that they are all, again, I think that they're all going to suffer some consequences.

When, as you know, you're more political, you have more political history

or you have a better political resume than I do.

But every administration thinks that, you know, that they're going to be there forever.

They're going to be in power forever.

Yeah.

And if you don't forget that, it's going to be over one day.

Look, I mean, look at, you know, the Reagan era, everybody, the Republicans were great.

And then it was over.

Yeah.

Right?

And then you look at the Clinton era.

Oh, this is great.

And then it was over.

Yeah.

Even Obama, over.

And one day Trump is going to be over.

And they're going to have to, and unfortunately, they're going to have to answer for what they did.

Unfortunately, Trump's going to get away with it.

But some of these other people are going to experience consequences.

I think they're going to be in jail longer than you were.

He's going to try to pardon some of them, but, you know, they're state crimes.

They're state crimes.

And also, also, I've been speaking to legal people on background.

And they say, if he does go in and he overuses these pardons, they will probably go, it will probably go to the Supreme Court.

And some folks, and we'll see what happens with the Supreme Court, you know, I mean,

he's kind of stacked the Supreme Court now.

But some of these folks may not be, you know, saved by pardons that were handed out before.

Which takes us back to Scott McLean.

Yes.

He quit.

Nobody's been quit.

Nobody quits this administration, right?

There's no whistleblowers.

Like, in the past, our government has done bad things.

But people from inside said, this is too far from me.

This has passed my red line.

But there's some now.

You mean now?

Yeah, now.

It's John Kelly, quit.

Right, right now.

No, because here's why this is my theory.

Is that if you signed up for this after January 6th, you basically said, I don't have a red line.

Right, and I know that he's going to do illegal stuff.

You know, that first group, very misguided.

I've said very nasty things about all of them because it was clear to me what he was his presidency was going to be like.

But they thought that they were like putting the bumpers on the bowling alley and they were going,

nobody thinks that now.

And so that's why these guys can go and they do, and they can commit crimes.

They can commit heinous atrocities, whether it be in El Salvador, Iran, or domestically in Minneapolis.

And the people that have signed up aren't, there's nobody there to blow the whistle.

I mean, they're the career officials, like the prosecutors we talked about.

But if the political people, they're all in.

Well, that's why you're right.

And that's why I don't believe in the false equivalence that I see on, you know, in corporate media now, because we're in a whole new place.

I don't believe that, you know, you can work with that on that side of the island, or with the people on that side of the island anymore.

Because they, there are no levers for them.

There's nothing that they want to prove from this administration.

And people get upset with me.

And they're like, that's insulting when I say that many people in the magma movement are racists, right?

And if they're not racists, they had to overlook the racism in order to support this president.

Are the misogyny or the anti, you know, are the...

I love that people like don't want you to say that they're like, oh, don't impune their motives.

And it's like, the campaign was literally about how patients eat dogs and cats.

And how he was going to deport, you know, immigrants and it was going to be a massive...

That's what it was about.

But if you had to...

I say that a lot of them are racists, many of them.

And if not, you had to overlook it.

And I think that's even worse.

If you can overlook the racism, the misogyny, the election denial, the insurrection denial, the anti-vax.

If you have to overlook that, I mean, I think that...

Okay, if you know your racist, okay, fine.

But if you're not, and you go, I'm going along with it, a lot of them go along with it because of the white supremacy.

And that's where we are right now.

Let's talk about the other side.

I presume, given that that is the type of material that you're offering on the Don Lemon Show,

that most of the viewers of the Don Lemon Show are going to be in the Democratic primary electorate, not all necessarily, but most.

So you have a sense of this from your audience.

Like, there are two things that I'm interested in, like, kind of looking at how the Democrats are going to respond to all of this.

And things that worry me a little bit about fissures within the Democratic side.

Because, you know, people, emotions are high right now.

People are fucking pissed.

And so, when emotions are high, you know, sometimes there's food fights on your own side.

And there are two kind of fissures I'm looking at.

One, we saw in Texas, which is, I can really racialized, I think, fissure, between that Jasmine Crockett and James Tolerico primary.

Yeah.

And then in some of these other primaries, we're seeing it over foreign policy over Gaza and over Israel.

What are there, like, some one side of the Democratic electorate is, you know, very hostile towards Israel's actions in Gaza.

And that's, like, that is their primary issue.

And then that there are folks on the other side that are more national security oriented, more, you know, Israel's our ally.

Like, among your audience, like, how do you sense those kind of conflicts are going to be resolved inside the Democratic coalition or are they?

It's tough.

It's tough. I don't know that they are.

It should be, especially considering the moment that we're in.

But I don't know. I think that on the Democratic side, they've got to take quite frankly a lesson from the Republican side.

And they've got to fall in line and they have to realize that, you know, they're always going to be disagreements.

Some of them small, especially small disagreements because it happens in families.

Yeah.

And if it happens in families, I don't agree.

I love my mom, like, you know, at most, my mom and my husband and whatever in the world.

And I don't agree with them all the time.

Yeah, right.

And so we have arguments, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to, you know, I wouldn't vote for them.

Yeah, right.

Of course I would vote for them.

You'd vote for your husband?

Yeah, of course I would.

Yeah, I know.

Not sure.

So you wouldn't?

I'm just joking.

He didn't come.

He didn't come to the panel.

He stayed at home.

So I was just teasing him.

Democrats are going to have to get over the idea that there's a perfect candidate or that they have to fall in love with the candidate.

And I'm not going to say please clap again.

So they have to fall in love with the candidate.

And they have to realize, which they didn't during this last election.

And I thought that they would, that I compared to public transportation and having a private driver.

Right?

Politics is like a public transportation, which ever gets you closest to your goal or to your home.

Yeah.

It's where you, what you want to do.

And the candidate is not going to drop you off at your door and take your bags in the house.

It's just not how it works.

It's too many people that they have to serve.

And there's so many different ideas in the Democratic Party.

But they're going to have to realize that this is the most important election.

I don't know if they're going to do it.

And what, what, what the Democrats should be doing now.

And this is what I thought about.

And I said, what am I, what am I going to stress when I'm with Tim today?

Is that if you're a Democrat or if you are a person who's not, you can be an independent or a Republican who has become disillusioned with the Republican Party.

If you are anywhere in that, you should start preparing for the election now.

You should start galvanizing people.

You should start reaching out to neighbors or people you don't even know.

You should start telling them, hey, is your identification match what's on your voting records?

If it doesn't, you need to go fix that.

Yeah.

Because the win has to be so big that there is no question about it.

Because Donald Trump and the Republicans not might.

They are going to try to steal this election, no matter what they have to do.

So you got to get out there and go, so start now.

Today is the day that you're going to the polling place.

Yeah.

I agree with you.

Every time this topic comes up when I'm on the coal show or on my show, I try to...

I'm usually the pessimist.

I don't know if you know that about me.

No, not that.

The campaigns they called me Raincloud.

And I always said to my boss, I was like, actually, I'm reality cloud.

We're losing.

Yeah.

Yeah, I lost most of the campaigns.

I was on not all of them, but most of them.

I was like, no, I was Raincloud because I was telling you what was happening.

And this one, I think it is going to be too big to steal.

You do.

They are going to try.

They are going to try.

And I just...

I worry sometimes that people in that big coalition that you're talking about are too...

They're too negative about the trajectory.

And it's almost like it leads to nihilism.

Like it leads to giving up and checking out.

If you believe that they're just going to steal it.

We're not going to have elections anymore.

And what you actually is true, what you've seen in the past,

this is not true in very extreme cases like the Jim Crow South.

But in recent years, when they've tried to do voter suppression,

more times than not, not every time.

More times than not, it's backfired.

Yeah.

Because it draws attention to it.

And I was like, when Steve Bannon was out there saying we're going to put ice outside the polls,

everybody else was very freaked out about that.

My message was put ice outside the polls.

You know what that's going to do?

A bunch of people who don't usually vote in the midterms are going to be like, fuck you.

Right.

Okay, I'll vote by mail.

I'll vote early.

I'll walk past those ice guys and give them a big metal finger.

And I do...

And I expect...

I don't know, but I kind of think that's the direction we're on.

I think you're right.

But what I'm trying to convey to people is that you can do all of those things

and when you get in there and they say you can't vote.

I agree with this.

And your vote doesn't count because it's not you can't vote.

And so you have to make sure that everything is in place.

So they can't say, oh, you can't do this.

We saw this in Texas during this...

It's not a primary.

Right?

It was just like, yeah, we saw it in Texas during this.

They changed the rules.

Like you always voted this one precinct.

Right.

They made it harder.

Many fewer precincts were shown up to the wrong place.

We saw this.

Like last week.

We did.

Which was...

I mean, it was an interesting election because there were two good candidates, right?

Both that, you know, positive...

Every candidate has positives and negatives.

And I think that Texas will be...

Would it be...

Will be and...

Okay.

With either one of those.

Hillary, yeah.

What is your audience like?

What has their passions going?

Like, what do you think?

If you're saying to a Democratic candidate, you're like,

I'm not giving you political advice.

I don't know.

I can only speak for my audience.

Like, here are the things that get them riled up.

Well, you said that, you know, most of my audience...

You thought that they were Democrats or liberals or whatever.

I think, yes, I'm sure that's a big part of it,

but they are mostly people who have become disillusioned with America,

not just the political process.

You know.

And I think it's people...

They're Republicans who watch.

And by the way, if you don't agree,

I want you to be there.

As long as you're not trolling.

Yeah.

I want you to be in the audience.

I put my audience on the screen.

Like, you have a membership in my audience.

You can actually be on the show and voice whatever it is that you...

Risky business.

I don't know.

But that's the audience.

Yeah.

But that's what you have to do.

You have to worry about that Jeffrey Tubans.

Yeah.

But...

Yeah.

I asked you this question because the audience is on the screen.

Sorry, it's just a joke.

Come on, guys.

It's a joke.

I asked you this because the audience is on the screen, though,

because you...

I think you're more in touch than maybe you probably were as an anchor at CNN, right?

So I'm curious, like, what...

What are you hearing?

I'm hearing that people want to know what to do.

They feel, as I said, disenfranchised and they feel powerless in that they don't have agency.

So I tried to get them to understand that they do by saying some of the things that I've said now.

You do have...

There are things that you can do.

You do have elected representatives who do depend on you for their jobs.

So you have to make sure that...

And what they don't know, which I tell them, I know this is going to sound crazy,

is that you can...

Any American citizen can go and visit their congresspeople in Washington.

You don't have enough resources to do that.

You can go to their office and tell them in a schedule of meeting with them.

You can go and talk to them.

You can go and bump into them as they're walking back and forth from whatever the Russell building or whatever it is to the Capitol.

And most people don't realize that.

So you do have agency.

But what I tell them is that you've got to vote.

I want to get you in trouble with the Democratic politicians for a second.

I think one cool thing about our platforms is that you do get a real sense for people.

You get to kick the tires on them.

If they're going to come on the Don Lemon show, it's just a little different than it used to be on CNN.

A lot of the politicians that you get into your road system,

you're like, I can survive this TV segment.

It's eight minutes.

I'm going to do this and that and the other thing.

And on the internet it's different.

And so I'm just wondering, is there anybody that's been impressing you?

They came on and you're like, oh man, they've got really chops.

The audience loved them.

Or then maybe they came on and you're like, boy, they struggle outside of the cons.

They're talking points.

Well, I think they're learning.

The people, I mean, there's this guy on the bull work.

His name is Tim Miller, but he's okay.

I'm at the politician.

I'm at the politician.

I'm not running for shit.

I am impressed with the younger people who are in the Democratic party right now.

The AOCs of the world.

And the Bernie Sanders, because Bernie Sanders has young ideas.

And I believe, and Jasmine Crockett and all those people, because I believe that the energy

on the Democratic side is in the progressive movement of the party.

When you think if you want people to have living wages and you want to raise the minimum wage

to something so that people can afford to be able to live, that's a progressive idea.

But that's like a universal idea.

That people should have affordable healthcare as a progressive idea.

But it's everyone should have affordable healthcare in this country.

We're a very wealthy nation.

Look, what is it?

I think Elon Musk is worth somewhere in the $800 billion, right?

And so we have enough money in this country to be able...

Even my interview starts coming out.

Yeah.

You know, the amount of money Jeff Bezos went from...

Since he's owned the Washington Post, I don't have this front of me.

He went from like being worth something like $50 billion to being worth $800 billion in the last 12 years.

I mean, it's enough to...

It's like they're begging for the friendship.

It's enough to feed and to see Kai Trump and the Irwan.

Yeah.

It's like the Trump kids are the Irwan, they're stealing our money.

Well, Trump is finally a billionaire.

Yeah.

He's made it off of the presidency since he's been in office just this time, this one year.

So it makes sense why the energy is on the progressive.

But you ask...

The energy is on the progressive side.

So I'm impressed with those people when they come on.

I've been a little bit nervous about the establishment because...

And look, much respect to the folks who have been leading the party.

How came Jeffers has been on my show?

Nancy Pelosi hasn't been on the show, but I saw her recently in person and I ask all of them

do they think they're going to have an election, a fair election in 2026 and they all say,

oh, without a doubt, 100% and then I go, uh...

But I think that finally they are starting to get it and starting to realize

that they need to have some fire in their bellies.

And it can't be the same old way that they operated.

And, you know, if someone, like an Al Green, is a raborizer and, you know, creates a, you know, a bit of a stir,

they've got to stand by that person because that's what's going to get the people to go to the polls and vote.

It's not going to keep them on committees maybe, but that's what's going to get them people to vote.

I haven't talked to my girl Liz Smith on this.

We're not doing Q&A, are we doing Q&A?

Are we doing Q&A?

Are we doing Q&A?

No, it's just me.

I don't think anybody wanted to hear from the people.

Okay.

They got to be wondering if you had any questions.

Do you want Q&A?

Are you sticking my questions?

Oh, no, I was just wondering because, you know, time is running.

We're running out of time.

I've got a couple of good ones left.

Okay, go for it.

We're going to go through your sex life.

You know, Eugene Carroll.

Eugene Carroll, when she was on my show,

listed to me every person she had ever had sex with and it was the most impressive list I've ever heard.

She did?

Yeah.

She's had sex with like six people.

But they all, like, were Olympians and there was an Oscar winner.

It was an astronaut.

That was like, wow.

What?

And you?

That was a great podcast.

They don't know.

They don't know.

It was larger and less impressive than Eugene Carroll's.

Shit.

I did have good questions left, but I forgot what they learned now.

We got distracted.

I saved myself until I got mad.

Yeah, distracted.

Oh, did you?

Good for you.

That's because we're at book fest.

That's because you wrote a book about how you once were lost.

Yeah.

You wrote a God book.

I wrote.

I did.

I was thinking about that.

I was like, I have to talk to Don Lemon for an hour.

I'm going to talk to him about how we bombed a girl's school, how you got arrested.

We're sending people to gulags.

And, you know, that might shake your faith a little bit.

No, it actually strengthens my faith.

And I think people, when I wrote the book, it's called Once was Lost My Search for God in America.

And I talked about my struggles with grief because I lost my sister in 2018.

And then this was after the book.

I lost my sister recently, May of last year.

And so my two siblings are gone.

So it's just me.

And I've got to stay around because my mom was like, okay.

Yeah.

You need to be okay.

So it's strengthens my mom's still around.

My mom is up the road in Baton Rouge.

I said, mom, do you want to come?

She goes, no, I'll watch you on the C-Span.

So, you know, are you going to go see her while you're in town?

Yeah.

I'm going to go see her.

Or, but look, I'll go see her.

Or look, she'll be at my house this summer for a long time.

Last time she was there, I was like, mom, I love you.

But you have a life in Louisiana.

And she's like, yeah.

And she goes, well, you know, I'm just hanging out.

I said, mom, you've been here for seven weeks.

Way too long.

I love my mother.

That's way.

Seven weeks.

And then she's like, yeah, I guess you're right.

And then she goes, I'm going to Baton Rouge

to the LSU Girls Game next weekend.

Let me know if I need to check in.

Yeah, go say hi to my mom.

I'll give you her address.

But so it's strengthens my fate.

And I think people didn't realize that I have a faith,

that I had such a strong belief,

and that I am a Christian.

But I also live in reality.

And I understand that there is a separation between

church and state.

And the reason, one of the reasons that I wrote the book,

is to talk about the erasure of that line,

not just blurring that line, and how religious nationalism,

and white nationalism are sort of,

are not sort of, but they're combining,

and they're trying to erase the line between church and state.

And that is a very dangerous place to be in.

And that's where we are politically right now.

I wonder, this is another thing.

I think that has hurt the Democrats a little bit.

Look, I'm a lapsed Catholic.

All right, the Catholics made some mistakes.

All right, and it hurts my mother's feelings.

And so it's easy for me to say this,

because it doesn't reflect my life or my experience.

But I think that, to the extent that there are Democrats,

are people on the left who are authentically people of faith.

Like, they should, I feel like they used to talk about it more.

You know, Jesse Jackson just died.

And he was very comfortable.

More than comfortable, right?

There's a reverend talked about his faith a lot.

And I think that there are a lot of people out there

who maybe feel like those on the left are godless or whatever.

And it's obviously fake coming for the right.

But there's something to be said about.

I don't know, I think there are a lot of people,

particularly older black voters, to be honest,

but also Hispanic voters who vote Democrat,

who go to church, who have those values,

and are maybe feeling less seen.

They are less seen because they're not quite as loud.

The loudest voices will always get more attention.

But I believe that those people understand

what having faith means, whether it's being Muslim or Christian

or whatever, they understand that we live in a country

that is religious freedom.

So they're not trying to push their values on other people

and they're not trying to use the media

and their politicians in order to do that.

And so as someone who is a person of faith,

and however I feel about abortion,

if I don't believe in it, I'm not going to have one,

but I'm not going to tell you what you can do

because that's what our constitution says.

And so I think that, or however you feel about anything,

you, what, I don't wear my faith on my sleeve.

It's like, it's going around with the Bible

and this and that's not what faith is about.

And I think those people actually understand

even more so than sort of the right-wing ideological folks

what real faith means.

So what it means there.

Rapid five, we have 30 seconds left.

You're Louisiana and we're in Louisiana.

And I want your favorite Creole dish,

your favorite Louisiana musician,

and your favorite Louisiana homosexual.

Oh my God.

So one would be Tim Miller.

Well, you know where that one goes.

Or what's going to say, Lindsey Graham,

but he's not from Louisiana.

Yeah, South Carolina.

I don't want to insult people

because there are so many folks here in Louisiana

who I love.

You can just say Juvenile.

Or Masterpiece.

So I won't say that.

But I like, Louisiana is so rich,

especially New Orleans.

I mean, they're just artists that just like

on every corner and it's fantastic.

And the other thing was my favorite food dish.

So obviously I love gumbo, right?

Yeah.

Amazing.

But my favorite thing in the world,

oil crawfish.

And so when I went to the reception

at the president's house last night,

you didn't read your email.

I learned about that.

And when I left,

the first place I went,

I asked the driver,

I was like, you know where I can get crawfish?

Yeah.

And he said, yeah, I'm going to take you guys

and where Zara's supermarket is.

Oh, yeah.

I went to Zara's supermarket

and they said, you better,

he called and he says,

you guys have boiled crawfish?

And he said, yeah, we got some crawfish, baby.

But you better get here.

You got 10 minutes.

We're going to close.

I was like, that is going to be some good crawfish.

There we go.

So I went and got almost four pounds of crawfish.

All right.

I took them back to my room.

I made them give me a bunch of

plastic bags from the restaurant.

Yeah.

And I sat in my room

and ate crawfish and then called the folks

to come get them.

I love that.

I know.

So that's my favorite thing.

Last season for me.

Thank y'all so much.

That's Tom Levitt, he's free.

A free man.

Thanks, Tom.

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