Independent journalist Don Lemon on Thursday called on news reporters covering President Trump to “have some dignity and a backbone,” using former late-night host Stephen Colbert as an example.
Lemon, on his podcast “The Don Lemon Show,” said that “all of the late-night shows are going dark” to praise Colbert ahead of the final episode of “The Late Show.” Then he turned his attention to the Washington Press Corps.
“Do not let Karoline Leavitt call on the next person when you’re not finishing your question. Stand up for your colleagues,” he said, referring to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. “Stand up for yourself. Have some dignity and a backbone.”
He urged White House reporters to stand up for their colleagues and “stand up for respect” when facing Trump’s insults during questioning, telling them to “stand up for the First Amendment.”
“The next time someone calls one of your coworkers a piggy, the next time he calls them a loser, the next time he insults them, the next time he tells a Black woman that she knows dirt better than him, say something!” Lemon yelled.
The former CNN host was referring to a moment aboard Air Force One in November when the president told Bloomberg’s Catherine Lucey “Quiet, piggy,” after she asked Trump about his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Lemon also referred to Trump’s attacks on women of color who had asked him a question.
Lemon praised Colbert for “telling the truth on purpose” during his 11-year run as host of “The Late Show.”
“And he is not done,” Lemon added. “And he is not afraid. And then wake up tomorrow and be that same thing in your own life.”
Trump’s attacks on the press escalated throughout the duration of the nearly three-month-long U.S.-Israeli conflict in Iran. Last month, he bashed The New York Times and “stupid CNN” over their coverage of “Operation Epic Fury,” adding that the former’s reporting was “actually seditious, in my opinion.”
Lemon’s former CNN colleague Jake Tapper clapped back at this remark.
“Reporting these facts isn’t treason, and it’s deranged for any president to say such a thing and potentially dangerous for the reporters he’s accusing of treason,” the anchor said during a segment on “The Lead.”
The same month Trump insulted Lucey, the White House released a so-called “media bias” tracker highlighting news reporting accused of being “offenses” toward the administration. The tracker follows the Washington Post, MS NOW, CBS News, CNN, The New York Times, Politico and the Wall Street Journal.
Colbert and the other late-night hosts have regularly lampooned Trump during both of his administrations, which was typically met with Trump blasting them.
The president praised Colbert’s ousting and fired a torrent of Truth Social posts celebrating Colbert’s departure Thursday and Friday, including an AI-generated video of the president tossing the former “Colbert Report” host into a dumpster.
“Stephen Colbert’s firing from CBS was the ‘Beginning of the End’ for untalented, nasty, highly overpaid, not funny, and very poorly rated Late Night Television Hosts,” Trump wrote one post. “Others, of even less talent, to soon follow. May they all Rest in Peace!”
