CNN hosted an angry Sheriff David Clarke, who’ll be speaking at the GOP convention tonight. Don Lemon talked about the recent murders of police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and asked the sheriff about his message.
“My message has been clear from day one two years ago. This anti-cop sentiment from this hateful ideology called Black Lives Matter has fueled this rage against the American police officer. I predicted this two years ago.”
“With all due respect,” Lemon said, “do you know that this was because of that?”
“Yes I do,” Sheriff Clarke said. “I’ve been watching this for two years. I predicted this. This anti-police rhetoric sweeping the country has turned out some hateful things inside of people that are now playing themselves out on the American police officer. I want to know, with all of the black-on-black violence in the United States of America…by the way, when the tragedies happened in Louisiana and Minnesota, you know that 21 black people were murdered across the United States? Was there any reporting on that?”
Then Lemon told the sheriff to calm down.
“I’ve got three dead cops, and you want me to calm down?”
Featured photo credit: By Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America – David Clarke, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
You can see frowns and tension before the conversation began. I wonder what was said before the cameras rolled?