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The Don Lemon Show

LEMON DROP | MAGA's Racism Is On Full Display!

16 Feb 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: Who is Jeremy Carl and what is his nomination about?

13.497 - 31.724 Don Lemon

Just an indication where we are right now as it relates to the people who are in Donald Trump's cabinet and how far we've gone with the racist, bigoted members of his cabinet, or just people who are unqualified. And one of those is that who's been nominated for a very significant position.

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31.744 - 54.058 Don Lemon

His name is Jeremy Karl, and he had to face a Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week because he has been nominated to serve in the cabinet as the Assistant Secretary of State for international organizations. And according to reports, that role involves managing relationships and policies toward the United Nations and its agencies.

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54.458 - 78.385 Don Lemon

And that means that this person would have to deal with very diverse people. And does that even matter? It does matter somewhat. But this is the kind of person the kind of people, he is indicative of the kind of people that this administration is putting into leadership roles. Jeremy Carl is a bigot, is a racist.

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79.276 - 102.482 Don Lemon

And if you don't believe me, then I will let you listen to some of what he said during this hearing, which were questions about some of the comments that he's made publicly, some of them on social media that he has erased. But I will start. This one is with Senator Chris Murphy, and he's questioning him about his racist comments in the past. Here it is.

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Chapter 2: What controversial views has Jeremy Carl expressed?

103.458 - 132.908 Chris Murphy

One of the things you have said is that anti-white discrimination is the most pervasive and politically salient form of racism today. So do you continue to believe that anti-white discrimination is more salient than the discrimination faced today by blacks, Latinos, Muslims, or other American groups?

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133.276 - 146.01 Jeremy Carl

Senator, thank you for that question. And thank you also for giving me an opportunity to speak at a little bit of length. I haven't necessarily had much opportunity to respond. I'm going to have at least one more question.

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146.03 - 158.524 Don Lemon

So just so you know, he does that with every single question, every time he's questioned about something he doesn't answer. And then he says the same thing over and maybe to eat up time, the person's time so that they run, he runs out the clock, but keep going.

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159.027 - 161.371 Chris Murphy

So I'll give you a minute or two to respond.

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161.771 - 181.744 Jeremy Carl

Yes. So thanks to the great work of my friend Harmeet Dhillon as the Assistant Attorney General of Civil Rights, I actually think that we've done an incredible job in this administration of getting rid of certain policies that discriminate particularly against white Americans, but also in some cases Asian Americans.

181.724 - 204.222 Don Lemon

answer my question let's let's let's let's rewind um because maybe you'll suggest that everything is fine now let's rewind yeah uh a year pause right there okay so again he's thanking someone in the department or whatever who is also questionable um has questionable beliefs on race and all of this um stuff and at the i don't know the

204.623 - 221.198 Don Lemon

with the leadership of whatever, I don't know if you would call that leadership, but anyway, he's not answering the question and Chris Murphy is gonna try to get him to stick with the correct answer or the answer to the question that he's asking rather than him trying to obfuscate, keep going.

221.347 - 227.215 Chris Murphy

A year ago, were white Americans the most discriminated against group in the United States? You said it.

Chapter 3: How does Jeremy Carl's perspective on discrimination differ from others?

227.375 - 248.502 Jeremy Carl

Senator, certainly this is my belief. I'm not running away from that. I think that while, of course, all races in different contexts can be subject to really severe discrimination, that when we look at our legal structures, white Americans are often very disfavored in overt ways. We're seeing this in the Small Business Administration, many other places.

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248.482 - 257.491 Chris Murphy

So your belief is that white Americans face more discrimination, at least prior to the Trump administration, fixing this than black Americans?

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258.031 - 261.234 Jeremy Carl

On average, Senator. Yes, that's correct. And I'm not running away from that statement at all.

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261.555 - 279.616 Don Lemon

He believes that white Americans face more discrimination than African-Americans, than Latinos, than Asian-Americans, than Indian-Americans, than white Americans. And he says under the great leadership of someone at the civil rights.

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280.978 - 302.044 Don Lemon

The people who started civil rights and whoever started the civil rights part of the Department of Justice are probably, if they're not with us any longer, turning in their graves saying this is not what civil rights is about. And first of all, what he's saying is bullshit. And it is in fact racist. Keep going.

303.346 - 311.718 Chris Murphy

You have made several statements about your worry regarding the erasure of white culture in America.

Chapter 4: What implications does Carl's nomination have for U.S. diplomacy?

313.38 - 335.434 Chris Murphy

I understand Irish-American culture. I understand Italian-American culture. I maybe don't understand white culture as well. Tell me the values, the white values, that you believed are being erased by the current American government?

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335.695 - 352.485 Don Lemon

Pause, pause before he answers that. Now, I want you to remember when if you look back at the history of this country, Italian-Americans, Irish-Americans and Jewish-Americans were not considered white. So it's not he's he's talking about white culture, which is not really an ethnicity. White is not an ethnicity.

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353.14 - 362.308 Don Lemon

Either you can be Italian American, Irish American, European American, Indian American, Asian American, but there's no like just white. Keep going.

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363.291 - 385.542 Jeremy Carl

Senator, thank you for that question. I would say that it's not, I didn't use the word values, I used the word culture. I think that any time you have large degrees of mass immigration, you're going to have a change in culture, especially if they're coming from culturally dissimilar backgrounds. And no matter what group it is, if it were in China, it would be the same thing.

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Chapter 5: How does the Senate committee challenge Carl's beliefs?

385.602 - 388.345 Jeremy Carl

If it were in New Guinea, it would be the same thing.

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388.325 - 403.77 Chris Murphy

Yeah, but tell me about what that means. I mean, culture is values, right? It's expressions of identity. Tell me what is being erased. I mean, give me some examples of what you believe are being erased about white identity. What is white identity to you?

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403.79 - 417.836 Don Lemon

Yeah, good question. Stop. So what is being erased? Like, what is it? What's white that's being erased? And what is white culture? Is that what kind of food? What kind of food is it?

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Chapter 6: What examples does Carl give to support his views on white culture?

417.856 - 419.661 Don Lemon

What kind of music is it? What is white culture?

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422.109 - 424.797 Jeremy Carl

Go on. Senator, thank you for that.

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425.298 - 427.866 Chris Murphy

Tell me how it's different than other identities.

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428.42 - 432.607 Jeremy Carl

Senator, I think the question of identity is something that lots of scholars go into.

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432.627 - 439.118 Chris Murphy

Yeah, you can do a sermon on identity, but just tell me how you define white identity and what you think is being erased about white identity.

440.12 - 446.911 Jeremy Carl

Senator, it would have – thank you again for the question, and genuinely thank you for finally letting me have a chance to explain.

446.951 - 449.415 Don Lemon

He keeps doing this. He keeps doing it. Go ahead.

449.952 - 470.256 Jeremy Carl

My comments a little bit, but I would say that, you know, they could be things like going to a certain type of Christian church and that sort of culture, which is very different. I mean, you can all be Christians, right, in a certain environment, but African-American Christians might worship differently than Chinese Christians that might worship differently than white Christians.

470.296 - 477.445 Jeremy Carl

Of course, sometimes you have multi-ethnic churches, but things like that, certain types of... Can you pause, please?

Chapter 7: What criticisms are raised about Carl's understanding of culture?

482.907 - 518.025 Don Lemon

You're supposed to be worshiping God, which is a dark skin Jew or if, if, if Christianity is your religion. So what is it whites somehow worship different than blacks and The fact that he is separating the churches into ethnicity by saying blacks and Anglo and whatever, what does the black church have to do with the white church if they're not impinging on the white church?

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518.045 - 528.399 Don Lemon

Like the black church, folks at the black church aren't going over to the white church and saying, you gotta change something about the way you worship. He's making no sense and he can't really explain it. Keep going.

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529.721 - 556.736 Jeremy Carl

Derived culture that comes from our history. Like what? Let me think about this. Senator, I would say if you were to look at the book by one of your former Senate colleagues, Born Fighting, about the sort of Scotch-Irish military culture and certain pride that went with that, that would be one example. Obviously, you could have sub-elements of that culture. You could have Italians.

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556.776 - 559.219 Jeremy Carl

You could have Irish. And those are in many ways more distinct.

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559.239 - 560.461 Chris Murphy

But you're worried about white culture.

Chapter 8: What does this nomination reveal about the current administration's stance on race?

560.481 - 576.231 Chris Murphy

You're not worried about, you're now retreating to ethnic identity. You don't speak about ethnic identity. You speak about white identity. So tell me the values that stitch together white identity and that make it different than black identity.

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576.464 - 578.448 Jeremy Carl

Senator, again, thank you for the question.

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578.488 - 593.798 Chris Murphy

You spent a lot of time talking about this and writing about this. You should be able to. You're struggling with this. He is struggling. But you should be fairly easily, I would assume, able to tell us your thoughts on how white identity is A, different than other kinds of identity, and how it's being erased.

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594.942 - 618.807 Don Lemon

senator again thank you for the question i'm trying to be uh persu i'm just trying to be very precise uh so because i'm here in front of him so he keeps doing that because he's he's again trying to run out the clock because he can't really explain it other than it's racist other than him saying that white culture he thinks that white culture is best whatever that means whatever he means by white culture which he hasn't really explained

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618.787 - 645.365 Don Lemon

And that he thinks that other people, other ethnicities in this country are somehow infringing on white culture. And the only explanation to that is that he is saying that white culture is best and that's what should happen in America. And that's how white people are being discriminated against. But he's not offering any evidence because he keeps getting caught in his own illogical circle.

646.667 - 647.528 Don Lemon

Keep going.

647.896 - 672.57 Don Lemon

committee um i would say that the white church is very different than the black church in terms of its tone and style on average what does it have to do with anything with different than tone on average what does it have to do with anything they're not marching on the white church saying hey we want to come in as black church and we want to take over your church no one is saying that so white people can go to church and they can worship however they want

673.58 - 682.792 Don Lemon

He makes no sense, but yet he is being nominated. And the administration has had the audacity to nominate someone like Jeremy Carl. Keep going.

683.653 - 694.266 Jeremy Carl

Food ways could often be different. Food. Music could be different. And those are being erased. Music could be different. Well, if you look at the Super Bowl halftime show, which was not in English this year.

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