The internet was on fire last week after former President Barack Obama seemingly had a chuckle with Donald Trump at the funeral for late President Jimmy Carter earlier this month.
Though many have speculated on what the pair were discussing, one person in particular was wholly irate at the exchange: former CNN host Don Lemon.
The journalist originally took to his YouTube channel to address “Morning Joe” hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski’s segment that aired on Friday (Jan. 10) about how to act around Trump.
Scarborough and Brzezinski, who are longtime critics of the President-elect, also met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in November.
“You have to indicate to the American people that this is not normal … grinning with someone that you have called a fascist over the last couple of years and the last months. That’s not normal,” Lemon stated.
“Folks are tired of the behavior being normalized. Civility does not mean befriending people or forgoing your morals and your principles and your character. If someone disrespects my loved one, I don’t have to smile in their f****ng face!”
It wasn’t long before Lemon directed his ire toward Obama for talking with Trump as they sat next to each other at Carter’s funeral. Throughout Obama’s consecutive presidential terms, Trump repeatedly demanded to see Obama’s birth certificate to prove that he was a U.S. citizen.
“People had many, many questions...How could Barack Obama, the man who faced vicious, racist conspiracies for years because of Trump, act so buddy-buddy with him? Does he not remember birtherism?” Lemon asked.
The journalist also explained that Democrats called Trump “a fascist, an autocrat, a threat to democracy for months,” and that Obama’s pleasantries with him contradict this stance.
Obama previously stated in October that a second Trump presidency would be “dangerous” and that “In politics, a good rule of thumb is: Don’t say you want to do anything like Hitler.”
However, after Trump won the presidential election in November, Obama and his wife Michelle urged Americans to come together to have a smooth political transition.
“This is obviously not the outcome we had hoped for, given our profound disagreements with the Republican ticket on a whole host of issues,” the joint statement read.
“But living in a democracy is about recognizing that our point of view won’t always win out, and being willing to accept the peaceful transfer of power.”