Don Lemon opened his show on Monday night by slamming President Donald Trump for trying to whitewash white nationalism.

At one point, Lemon played a clip of Trump forcefully condemning “the evil of anti-Semitism and hate, which must be defeated.”

In response, Lemon said Trump was right to do that.

“The president was exactly right to say that,” he said. “He stepped up. He said the right thing. So why, when he was asked today if he thinks white nationalism is on the rise, why did he refuse to even answer the question?”

Then he said this: “Here’s the thing. You cannot condemn hate while simultaneously giving a wink and a nod to those who peddle hate. You can’t ignore the threat from white nationalism like this president did last month after that horrific attack, attacks on Muslims at a prayer in New Zealand.”

He then played a clip of Trump calling white nationalists a “small group” of people with problems.

Lemon continued on after the clip ended: “You can’t whitewash white nationalism with a bogus argument that the white supremacists and Neo-Nazis who openly paraded their hate on the streets of Charlottesville were protesting the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee who waged war on the United States, a brutal slave owner, who fought for the continued enslavement of millions of African-Americans. Millions of people who looked like me.”

Next, he played a clip of Trump claiming people when to Charlottesville because of the monument to Robert E. Lee.

“Everybody knows, we all heard what went on in Charlottesville,” the CNN host then stressed. “There were not very fine people on both sides.”

A clip then played of people in Charlottesville shouting “Jews will not replace up.”

“You cannot have it both ways if you condemn hate” Lemon said after the clip ended.

Watch above, via CNN

from Mediaite http://bit.ly/2WfttIe