“I’m going to say this and I know people don’t like it. Most black people don’t want police defunded. They don’t want fewer police there. What they want, they want more. And most communities of color in this country need police. They may need police more than white communities, okay?”
“There’s more crime,” CNN’s Chris Cuomo chimed in.
“Because there is more crime,” Lemon said. “Poor communities. There’s more crime in poorer communities regardless of what ethnicity you are. And African-Americans — most African-Americans know that. The fringes of the party want that. But most people in the Democratic party don’t want that. What they don’t want and what African-Americans don’t want, police abusing people.”
“One has to realize when you’re losing an ally and you’re starting to turn people off, whether it’s real or not you have to figure out how to fix it,” Lemon said. “The goal in politics and an election is to do what?”
“Not to win an argument, to win an election, and to be strategic and know when to push a certain issue, when to pull back on a certain issue. And you can’t always have an activist mind and an activist leaning when you’re trying to win an election. It’s great to be out there, this is what we want, this is what we want, but you have to realize the ultimate goal is to what? To win a center of power so you can take care of the issue that is important to you. I’m done,” Lemon finished.
