Video footage from the cable television opinion show “CNN Tonight With Don Lemon” shows the program’s eponymous host appearing to mistakenly read aloud a teleprompter cue to “scream” and feign outrage at allegations of voter fraud by the Trump campaign.
“How about some facts, okay?” Lemon says in the clip. “Trump supporters are circulating a list of social media, on social media, that purports to be a list of dead people in Michigan who are voting, right?”
“This is fraud people, scream -” Lemon says before appearing to realize he has missed the cue. He leans back at at his desk, visibly shaken, and mutters, “Okay, that’s what it says, alright, so…” before finally launching back into his monologue.
The video was posted to Twitter by a user who added the caption, “Don Lemon of CNN had a true Ron Burgundy moment by reading the word ‘scream’ on the teleprompter. Fake outrage much?? Lol.”
Don Lemon of CNN had a true Ron Burgundy moment by reading the word "scream" on the teleprompter 🤣 Fake outrage much?? Lol pic.twitter.com/H23QVi45An
— The Real Shane G 🇺🇲 (@the_real_shaneg) November 12, 2020
Cable news pundits have had an increasingly difficult time staying within protocol in recent weeks.
On Tuesday, NBC’s Ken Dilanian had a profane reaction to something he saw on his phone as news broke of President Donald Trump’s electoral victory in North Carolina:
Viewers of MSNBC were caught off guard when Dilanian did not respond to a question from host Craig Melvin, and instead appeared to look down at his phone several times and become very visibly alarmed.
“Oh s**t, f**k,” Dilanian gasped.
The camera quickly cut away from Dilanian and back to Melvin, who was caught at a momentary loss for words before saying, “Okay.”
Dilanian quickly took to Twitter after the incident to post an apology: “So sorry for the profanity I used on air last hour. I was experiencing some technical difficulties and mistakenly hung up on the control room, though my mic still was on. Perils of playing producer, cameraman and tech support all at the same time from home. #2020.”
Two days after the November 3 election, CNN host Jake Tapper fantasized about Trump supporters being “kind of like a fish flailing around on the deck, on of like a dock, it’s like, they’re breathing their last breaths.”
