Don Lemon presses Trump-era official on Nick Fuentes dinner: 'It sounds such as you're making excuses for him'
Don Lemon grilled former president Trump’s deputy secretary of state on Monday about Trump’s current dinner with antisemite Nick Fuentes.
Talking on CNN This Morning, Lemon requested Len Khodorkovsky, a Jewish man who stated he’s a grandson of Holocaust survivors, if it was flawed for Trump to satisfy with the identified white supremacist.
“From what I perceive, President Trump stated he didn’t know Nick Fuentes was coming, and Nick Fuentes himself, from what I perceive, stated President Trump had no concept who he was on the dinner,” Khodorkovsky stated.
“So I — look, let’s simply name Nick Fuentes for who he’s: he’s an antisemite, he’s repulsive, his views are disgusting, and no one in all any substance ought to give him any discussion board, it’s frankly beneath President Trump to satisfy with him.”
The New York Instances and Axios each reported final week that Trump dined on Tuesday evening with Fuentes and Ye, the rapper previously often known as Kanye West, at his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida.
Trump this week blamed Ye, who he referred to as a “significantly troubled man, who simply occurs to be black,” for bringing Fuentes to Mar-a-lago. He denied figuring out who Fuentes was.
Khodorkovsky stated as a substitute of specializing in who Trump was assembly with, consideration must be dropped at “the halls of Congress” and Democratic representatives like Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) for antisemitism.
“They’re not president of the US,” Lemon clapped again.
“Don’t you assume the previous president, contemplating what is occurring, the investigation at Mar-a-Lago, the paperwork, the categories of people that might need entry to labeled paperwork, past the anti-Semitism, you don’t assume the previous president ought to know who he’s assembly with and letting into his house?” Lemon requested.
Khodororkvsky stated “after all” Trump ought to know who he’s assembly with.
“It sounds such as you’re making excuses for him,” Lemon interrupted. “You say he ought to know who he’s assembly and then you definately stated he didn’t know. It sounds such as you’re making excuses. There’s no excuses for dangerous conduct, antisemitism and being the previous president and never figuring out who you’re permitting into a spot the place you’ve saved labeled paperwork.”
Khodororkvsky stated he condemns Ye’s antisemitism and the “mainstreaming of antisemitism,” however he stopped in need of saying he condemns Trump for assembly with antisemites.
“I do know the president is just not an antisemite,” stated Khodororkvsky. “He doesn’t have to apologize to me or anybody else.”
Fuentes brazenly espouses his need to protect white, European-American id and tradition, and has denied the Holocaust. Final month, Ye acquired backlash after he made antisemitic feedback, and a number of other firms minimize ties with the rapper for the feedback.
Khodororkvsky stated he does want Trump hadn’t met with Ye and Fuentes, however informed Lemon the dialog must be in regards to the rising antisemitism across the nation.
“Let’s concentrate on the actual subject of concern for each of us, which as there’s an increase in antisemitism in the US and the world and we must always not give a platform to any Holocaust deniers or antisemites wherever they’re,” stated Khodororkvsky. “I don’t assume that the President ought to have met with Kanye or his sidekick and I want nobody else will both.”
