Don Lemon fumed on Monday that he doesn’t want to hear anyone making the “false equivalence” between President Donald Trump’s rhetoric and what Democrats say, because the ex-CNN star said there is no comparison: Trump’s comments are much worse.

Lemon went off on Monday, two days after Trump was the target of another assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

“I am so sick of false equivalence. It drives me f*cking crazy!” Lemon shouted on his YouTube show. “Because that is b*llshit!’ 

He explained his thought process a bit more a moment earlier:

Words have consequences. Rhetoric really matters, and I believe that genuinely across the board. And that’s not a one-sided principle, it applies to everyone.

But I cannot say with a straight face — and nobody can say that with a straight face in the world that we live in right now that Democrats saying ‘Trump is terrible for this country” is the same thing as Donald Trump standing in front of a crowd on January 6 and telling them to march to the Capitol and “fight like hell.” I cannot say those things are equivalent because they are not.

Lemon’s framing of Trump’s January 6 comments are misleading, though.

Trump’s exact words in his 2021 speech were:”I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”

He then said at a different point in the speech, “And we fight. We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

Trump is currently suing the BBC for $10 billion for combining those two statements together in a documentary.

Lemon made his comments about political rhetoric around the same time White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt blamed the latest assassination attempt on the “left-wing cult of hatred.” 

Trump on Sunday told 60 Minutes he was “not worried” when shots were fired at the event in Washington, D.C., because “I have been through this a couple of times” — obviously referring to the previous murder attempts against him since 2024.

Cole Tomas Allen, the 31-year-old suspected shooter, was in court for the first time on Monday. He faces life in prison for three counts, including one count of attempting to assassinate the president.

Lemon said earlier in his episode that, despite his hatred of Trump, he did not want to see him killed.

“I want to be very clear here… What Cole Allen did was wrong. You do not pick up weapons and walk towards a room full of people,” Lemon said. “I don’t care how angry you are. It just doesn’t happen. It just shouldn’t happen. I don’t care how desperate things feel, it is always wrong. Always, always, always.” 

He continued, “And, I don’t want Donald Trump dead, okay? I do not want Donald Trump dead, let me say that. Not because I have any warmth towards him — I really don’t. I don’t. I think he’s a repulsive human being.” 

Lemon argued that killing Trump would make him a”martyr.” Instead, Lemon said he would prefer the president is “beaten by the voters” — even though Trump cannot run again for president.

Watch above.

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