Don Lemon said efforts at “reshaping” the nation should include a conversation about putting former President Barack Obama on Mount Rushmore.
The CNN host and colleague Chris Cuomo lamented a “right-wing machine” that defends President Trump and allegedly brainwashes gullible Americans before the conversation pivoted to “all of us together thinking or reshaping our country.”
“If they are going to put someone on Mount Rushmore, considering the history of the country, the first Black president should be front and center,” Mr. Lemon, appearing Tuesday night on “Cuomo Prime Time,” said after warning viewers that his comments would be controversial.
The “CNN Tonight” host added moments later that even calling the site Mount Rushmore should be reconsidered.
“The name shouldn’t be Mount Rushmore if you talk to Native Americans. They say it is stolen land,” Mr. Lemon said. “It was only Mount Rushmore 40 years before they started to carve presidents’ faces in it. No one got any money for that.”
“It’s a more salable idea than the idea of taking away Founding Fathers,” Mr. Cuomo said regarding the Obama pitch.
“Cuomos have only been here a couple of generations,” he said while recounting a recent conversation about racism with his children. “But you have to understand: We own the history of this place.”
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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