Don Lemon Celebrates That He Can Openly Support Kamala Harris After CNN Firing

Don Lemon was a speaker at the "Black Men for Harris" virtual meeting this week. During his time on screen, Lemon told fellow black-for-Harris voters that he would openly support the presumptive Democrat nominee.

Lemon claims he was not allowed to do so while working for CNN.

"I’m happy to be in an independent space where I don’t have to worry about corporate overlords now, where I can stand up for democracy, where I can say who I’m supporting. I’m on the side of democracy," Lemon stated with glee.

"I’m on the side of someone who is going to help our people, I’m not on the side of Project 2025. I’m not going to pretend to put these two campaigns on equal footing," Lemon continued. "We have heard enough about Donald Trump. We’ve heard enough about MAGA."

Lemon pretending he had to self-censor at CNN is amusing. No one at CNN during its hyper-partisan years under Jeff Zucker was more openly anti-Trump than he was.

Before his firing, Lemon admitted to unfriending, if you will, loved ones over their support for Trump. He referred to them as drug addicts.

"I had to get rid of a lot of people in my life [who support Trump] because sometimes you just have to let them go," Lemon said. "I think that they have to hit rock bottom, like an addict, right? And they have to want to get help.

In 2021, Lemon compared Trump supporters to Ku Klux Klan members. "If you voted for Trump, you voted for the person who the Klan supported," he added. "You voted for the person who Nazis support."

Is that so?

As you see, CNN never let Lemon express his true feelings about Trump as an employee.

"People need to understand Black people in this election, because that's whose going to decide this election," he concludes.

Don Lemon sues Elon Musk

Jemele Hill defends Don Lemon. (Photo by Selcuk Acar/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Speaking of Lemon's newfound freedom, he filed a lawsuit against X and Elon Musk on Thursday after the latter backed out of a contract agreement earlier this year.

The two sides announced an agreement to stream Lemon's new podcast via X, but Musk terminated the contract before the show officially launched.

Musk claimed, days after the two recorded an interview, that Lemon wanted to reinvent his show on CNN on X – which Musk considered bad business. Per Musk:

His approach was basically just "CNN, but on social media", which doesn’t work, as evidenced by the fact that CNN is dying. 

And, instead of it being the real Don Lemon, it was really just Jeff Zucker talking through Don, so lacked authenticity. All this said, Lemon/Zucker are of course welcome to build their viewership on this platform along with everyone else.

Musk's claimed Lemon also demanded the following items as part of the agreement:

• A free Tesla Cybertruck (a $61,000 car).
• A $5 million upfront payment on top of an $8 million salary
• An equity stake in X
• The right to approve any changes in X policy as it relates to news content
• A private jet flight to Las Vegas
• A suite for him and his partner
• The company pay for his day drinking and massages with his partner

 Lemon's team denies the above claims and calls the lawsuit "straightforward."

"X executives used Don to prop up their advertising sales pitch, then canceled their partnership and dragged Don’s name through the mud. You don’t have to be a genius to see the fraud, negligence, and reputational damage here," Carney Shegerian, an attorney for Lemon, said in a statement to CNN.

But, hey, at least neither Musk nor CNN can hold Don Lemon back any longer. He's a free man. Maybe one day Rachel Maddow can also go independent and no longer have to hide her biases.