Speaking on this week’s live episode of The Daily Beast Podcast, Don Lemon recalled being offered the chance to speak with President Donald Trump back in 2016. He turned it down.
He and other anchors were invited to Trump Tower right after the election for a chat, he remembered.
“I’ll tell you what I did back then, and this is what I would do now,” he told the audience at New York members’ club Zero Bond. “I called up my boss and I said, ‘Do I have to go? And he goes, ‘no, you don’t have to... why don’t you want to go?‘”
Lemon said it’s because he knew what was coming.
“I said, ‘because they’re gonna sit there and he’s just gonna demonize us, and he’s gonna talk s--t about us,‘” he recalled. “Why would be put ourselves through that?”
“I just don’t want to sit there in an off-the-record meeting and have him berate us,” Lemon said, adding that he pitched his boss a different spin: “Let’s do an interview for the American people, because I think it’s important, especially considering how people feel about the media now and feel about you. Let’s get this on the record. You’re going to be President of the United States.”
Lemon never ended up doing the interview. He isn’t even sure if his boss offered it. But almost a decade later, he’s still committed to bridging the gap between the American public, the political establishment and the media.
Lemon was fired from CNN in 2023 after after 17 years with the network. Today, he calls it a blessing in disguise.
“I try not to self-censor now,” he said. “I can say whatever the f--k I want.” One downside? “I would like to get some sleep,” he noted.
The long hours are paying off, though. “People are saying, ‘I saw your interview. I love your TikToks. I watch you on Instagram. I watch your lives on YouTube,‘” he told co-hosts Joanna Coles and Samantha Bee. “So my goal is to just inform people wherever they are. And that just happens to be on social media right now.”
One audience member jokingly asked if Lemon’s vision is to build a Mr. Beast-style media empire, referencing the widely popular YouTuber and multi-millionaire.
“We’re getting merch,” Lemon joked. “It is lemon(-themed). It would make a lot of things smell a lot better... it would be lemon-scented underwear, I think.”
