Questioning his support for President Donald Trump, CNN host Don Lemon asked a Republican strategist on his show Wednesday night whether she would vote for former Nazi leader Adolf Hitler if he was nominated by the GOP. In an emotional segment, also featuring former Republican Congressman David Jolly and Democratic strategist Angela Rye, Lemon questioned how Alice Stewart could back Trump in spite of accusations of racism and sexism leveled against the president.
"You can't overlook it, Don," responded Stewart, a former communications director for Ted Cruz's presidential campaign. "It's a bright light and that bright light is an oncoming train. And you cannot overlook it. But at the end of the day, like I said, he wasn't my first, second, third, fourth or fifth choice for the Republican nominee, but he ended up being the party's nominee. And I am a Republican, I'm going to support Republican candidates when that is the…"
Lemon then interjected: "But if the party—if the party nominates Hitler, are you going to vote for him? That's what I don't get."
"That's a far-fetched hypothetical in my view, Don," Stewart responded.
Later in the segment, Rye, who is black, came to tears discussing the issue of racism.
"I'm told every day I'm on air that I'm racist because I call out racism," she said, before turning her attention to Stewart. "That is maddening to me. And I'm crying about it because it's crazy. And I wish that somebody who is a colleague of mine like Alice could at least acknowledge that fact. That is so frustrating."
Stewart responded that this "has been going on for many, many years and it is boiling over the surface now."
Trump has faced frequent criticism over his rhetoric and policies concerning immigration. During his campaign, he called for a shutdown on all Muslims entering the United States, referred to Mexican immigrants as "rapists" and has pushed for a wall to be built along the entire United States-Mexico border.
Since entering office, he has been chided for saying there were "very fine people on both sides" of a deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, last August. More recently, he reportedly referred to immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African nations as coming from "shithole countries." And his administration has faced a firestorm of criticism after the announcement in April of a "zero tolerance" immigration policy that led to the separation of more than 3,000 migrant children from their parents.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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