CNN anchor Don Lemon delayed a commercial break Tuesday on “CNN this Morning” to criticize a Republican lawmaker for viewing the New York Post as a “credible source.”
Lemon criticized Republican Kentucky Rep. James Comer, who accused the FBI of conspiring with Twitter to suppress reporting about Hunter Biden’s laptop. When the interview — which also included co-host and former Daily Caller reporter Kaitlan Collins — ended, Lemon cut off the start of the commercial break to warn viewers about Comer’s claims.
“That’s the time that we’re in. Where facts are sort of flexible and you just throw things out there and citing un-credible sources like citing the New York Post as a credible source and saying that facts are — it’s just, I can’t believe that we’re here,” Lemon said.
But he wasn’t done yet. “Hold on, please, with the music,” Lemon told the producers as they prepared to cut to commercial break. “That’s a big issue when it comes to the American people. The American people are gonna have to suffer through all of this stuff from election deniers, to people who don’t believe in facts, we don’t have a shared reality and now its taken center stage too [with] people like [Republican Georgia Rep.] Marjorie Taylor Greene. An election denier, a conspiracy theorist, a QAnon sort of influencer or supporter presiding over the House of Representatives.”
“It’s a sad day for America when that happens and its a sad time for us when we have to deal with that,” he added.
Co-anchor Poppy Harlow responded by emphasizing the importance of fact checking. (RELATED: ‘You Don’t Think That Was A Mistake’: Don Lemon Confronts Biden Spox On Chinese Spy Balloon)
The Post broke the story about Hunter Biden’s laptop, which he abandoned in a Delaware repair shop, in Oct. 2020. Twitter suppressed the story and locked the accounts of the Post and former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany for several days when they attempted to share the article. The Daily Caller News Foundation authenticated some of the laptop’s contents the same month the Post published its initial report.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk partnered with a handful of journalists and editors to investigate and disclose the former Twitter executives’ suppression of the laptop story in what he called the “Twitter Files.” The disclosure found a signed declaration from the FBI which warned Twitter execs of a possible “hack-and-leak” by “state actors” to interfere in the 2020 presidential election. The FBI also warned Twitter of election security concerns during weekly meetings with the social media company and other government agencies.
The “Twitter Files” further revealed that the campaign of then-presidential candidate Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee requested that Twitter remove particular tweets just days before the 2020 election. Among the tweets they asked to have taken down were a nude photograph of Hunter Biden in the mirror with a woman behind him. A document showed a Twitter executive telling the Biden team that the request had been “handled.”
The FBI accused Musk and his investigation of “attempting to discredit the agency” in a Dec. 21 statement.