LEMON DROP | MAD MAGA TEARS!
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Why did Don Lemon and Clay Cane spark controversy after the Bill Maher conversation?
All right, there you see Clay Cain, radio host, extraordinaire, everyone, author of The Grift, The Downward Spiral of Black Republicans. Okay, Clay, so... You've seen this little controversy about black Republicans and black MAGA folks and whatever. I don't think it's rational to be a black MAGA person. But, you know, if you want to be a conservative or Republican, I'd say more power to you. That seems more rational to me than being that. So why are these people going after me since my conversation on Bill Maher's podcast? What's up with that? What did you think of this, I don't know, ginned up outrage?
I thought of my grandfather who would always say a hit dog will holler, a hit dog will holler. That's why you're upset. I mean, listen, as you pointed out, and I broke down in my book, there is a distinction between Republicans and between MAGA. And as far as black Republicans and black MAGA, There's a reason why you don't have a Colin Powell in the party anymore, of course, who's no longer with us, but he leaves the party. There's a reason why you barely hear from Condoleezza Rice. There's a reason why you barely hear from J.C. Watts. People who I disagreed with politically, but I didn't feel like they were grifters or they were hustlers or they were just tied to Donald Trump. How did black Republicans go from Jackie Robinson to Herschel Walker?
How did black Republicans go from Frederick Douglass, one of my heroes, to Clarence Thomas? Right. It's been this wild downward spiral. And what's funny about all the people getting upset with you for saying that it's they have a higher standard for you than their own president. Think about how in October of 2024, Donald Trump, who was running for president, said that any black person, any African-American who doesn't vote for him needs their head examined. Think about that. Yeah, you're more upset at Don Lemon. But the other side of it is that for the Black MAGA folks, folks who are running for Congress or the Black MAGA influencers, we kind of know how this story is going to end. We saw with Stacey Dash.
We saw with Omarosa. So you might go on your apology tour eventually. Maybe you'll succeed and go really far like caught in the Congress, Tim Scott. But I just think it's quite funny they were so triggered. Yet we're the cool ones.
Yeah, it's always like the folks who say, you know, liberals are snowflakes and everybody's a snowflake. First of all, I'm not a liberal. I'm not a conservative. I am an independent-minded person. I'm even registered as an independent. So I just don't believe in political parties. But I believe at this point, and I said it before the election, the Democrats are the only ones at least trying to keep the democracy intact. I don't believe that they're doing a good enough job. But anyway, this is not about them. Look, What was interesting to me, I think this conversation, if I have it right, kicked off when... Well, I don't know if it kicked off, but part of the conversation was Bill Maher talking about the sketch with Tom Hanks on the 50th anniversary of SNL, where he was a black MAGA person with the Make America Great Again hat on, playing Black Jeopardy, and he didn't want to shake the black man's hand.
Now, he was just probably startled. I don't know what the thing was, but... people are saying well that's not true they you know that would never happen this there's a man that wouldn't shake kamala harris's hand as she was swearing in his wife to be a senator like what gives here yeah well you know uh there's also a man who ran for president that thought he was the gatekeeper of blackness and said that kamala harris just turned black
Every black MAGA person, every black Republican should have been speaking out against that. This is also the same man that said that black folks, I'm paraphrasing here, can relate to him because he has a mugshot And folks on Fox News said because he's selling gold shoes.
How does Clay Cane distinguish between Black Republicans and Black MAGA figures?
I mean, as Will Hurd said, one of the few black GOP folks who've been in Congress, he represented Texas.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
Why did Don Lemon and Clay Cane spark controversy after the Bill Maher conversation?
0:01–4:05
2
How does Clay Cane distinguish between Black Republicans and Black MAGA figures?
4:05–8:26
3
What historical examples explain the decline of mainstream Black Republicans?
8:26–15:04
4
How have GOP policies and rhetoric affected Black voter support over time?
15:04–22:06
5
Why might some Black public figures join MAGA for proximity to power or money?
22:06–24:23
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from The Don Lemon Show
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