Don Lemon defends CNN's 'good' Russiagate coverage, blames Trump for perception that network went far left

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Former CNN anchor Don Lemon remains a staunch defender of the network despite his dramatic firing last year.

In an interview on Friday's "Counter Points," Lemon was grilled about CNN's coverage during his time at the network, which co-host Ryan Grim accused of "starting to sound kind of like a Democratic mouthpiece."

"I don't agree with the premise of what you're saying and when people put it in that context," Lemon responded. "We all view life through a certain lens, whether you're a journalist or not… It is actually okay to be a journalist and have an opinion. There's opinion journalism. So I don't believe in that BS about, you know, journalists just have to sit there and go, ‘What do you think, what do you think, okay, fine.' That's not how it works… That was the zenith, I believe, of CNN during that time."

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"And it may have looked that we had moved to the left or that, you know, we were somehow becoming an arm of the Democratic Party. That was only because of the Republican side, and mostly Donald Trump and the MAGA wing of the Republican Party. The facts were not on their side," he continued. "So by the simple fact of pointing out that someone is lying, that you're getting misinformation, it may make people think that, ‘Oh, my God, you must be on the Democrat side.’ No, you're on the side of truth."

Don Lemon insisted the perception that CNN went far left is the fault of former President Trump and the "MAGA wing of the Republican Party." (REUTERS/Andrew Kelly)

"Counter Points" co-host Emily Jashinsky pushed back, telling Lemon that the Russiagate coverage that came from CNN and the media broadly was "not great."

"Just the question about 'Donald Trump didn't have facts on his side,'" Jashinsky said. 

"The Russia coverage on CNN was was good. I think the Russia coverage in the media was good. I don't think that it was bad," Lemon responded. "You may disagree with it. That's your bias. But actually, the coverage was good. And I think that people are smart enough to discern what's true and what's not, what's real and what's not. And so, I don't think that the coverage was that bad. I don't fall into that category. And I think people were- look, I think people sort of romanticize the time that we were in, like people romanticize, you know, COVID and the protocols that were in place, and this was bad, and that was bad. They don't remember the time that we were in." 

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"I think that the media did the best job that they could at the time. I don't think that it was terrible. We can always look back, you know, being armchair quarterback, Monday morning quarterback and saying, ‘Oh, you should have done this.' Shoulda woulda coulda. We didn't. And again, my advice [is] accept things the way that they are, learn your lesson and move on… And people will say I was wrong. I think where I was, if we made a mistake and we got something wrong, we would say it."

CNN went wall-to-wall with its Russiagate coverage against then-President Trump but quickly moved on when the collusion allegations fell apart.  (Getty Images)

"But has CNN ever said that there actually was never proven collusion between the Trump campaign and [Russia?] - I don't think that they ever had," Grim told Lemon, to which he replied "Beyond CNN, I think there are accounts of collusion but you'd have to ask CNN." 

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Earlier in the interview, Lemon was confronted about his infamous January 2020 CNN segment with him laughing hysterically as his panel mocked Trump voters as "credulous Boomer rubes," something Jashinsky called a "low point" for the media in the Trump era. Lemon clarified to Jashinsky that he was specifically laughing uncontrollably at his guest's quip that Trump "couldn't find Ukraine on a map if you had the letter U and a picture of an actual, physical crane." 

"I did not make any comments about Americans, so you'll have to talk to Rick Wilson about that," Lemon said.

Notably, Lemon did accuse Trump voters later that year of having "cognitive dissonance" to support such a "bad person" and how they "like the racism" and "misogyny." 

Lemon was confronted about his infamous CNN segment where he laughed hysterically as his panel mocked Trump voters.  (Screenshot/CNN)

He also compared Trump voters to drug addicts and argued that they were on the side of Klansmen and Nazis. 

Lemon was fired last April following several tumultuous months that included losing his solo primetime show, off-set drama on his new morning show and his controversial "past her prime" comments about Nikki Haley. 

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In a recent interview, Lemon left the door open to officially returning to CNN.

"Look, I would never say never," Lemon said, "Most of the people who were involved in my ousting are gone. And so it's kind of the place that it was, you know, before I got there. So that would be interesting."