CNN’s Brian Stelter aired an audio clip of a threat made against himself and colleague Don Lemon. The threat was made during a live C-SPAN program by a caller, who reportedly identified himself as Don from State College, Pennsylvania.
According to Newsweek , the caller falsely claimed that Don Lemon and Brian Stelter labeled all Trump supports “racist” and threatened to shoot them as a response. The caller said the following during a live C-SPAN program.
“They don’t even know these Americans out here and they are calling us racists because we voted for Trump? Come on. Give me a break. They started the war. I see them, I’m going to shoot them.”
Stelter denied that he labeled all Trump voters as racist.
However, while stating that he did not blame Fox News’ Sean Hannity for the threat, he questioned whether the caller may have watched Hannity’s show where he recently aired a 2-year-old clip of Stelter discussing whether racial anxiety played a factor in Trump’s election.
Stelter also noted that racial anxiety playing a factor in Trump’s victory has been backed by studies .
The CNN host stated that journalists are being threatened more in the Trump era.
President Trump insulted Don Lemon over an interview he did with Lebron James. The NBA star criticized Trump for using sports to divide America.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzLanF-WCbk
Trump responded to the interview on Twitter stating that James was interviewed by “the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon,” before insulting James’ own intelligence.
“Lebron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon. He made Lebron look smart, which isn’t easy to do. I like Mike!”
WATCH: Brian Stelter airs clip of C-SPAN caller threatening to shoot him https://t.co/cvB7nHWBNg pic.twitter.com/4MmDBTyrGt
— The Hill (@thehill) August 5, 2018
Trump flew to Lebron’s hometown of Ohio later that day to support Republican Troy Balderson in the special election for the congressional seat in that district.
Lebron James subsequently received praise from first lady Melania Trump and Michael Jordan, who Trump referenced in his tweet aimed at James.
President Trump has equated news reports that he doesn’t consider favorable to him as fake news rather than news that is untrue. In a tweet earlier this year in May, Trump described news networks as “negative (Fake)”
President Trump has referred to the media as the enemy of the people. At an Axios event in Washington earlier this week, first daughter Ivanka Trump said that she did not agree with her father’s assessment of the media.
CNN’s Brian Stelter also mentioned in the clip that he does not feel like his life is in danger, noting the security at the CNN headquarters.
