Don Lemon chastises Fox News anchors for how quickly they politicized Colin Powell's death: 'It is disgraceful'

On CNN's Don Lemon Tonight Monday, the host wanted to reflect on the life and career of Gen. Colin Powell, who died earlier in the day at 84. But first, during his cross-talk segment with fellow CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, Lemon took issue with multiple Fox News anchors who began raising questions about vaccines “literally minutes” after the news of Powell’s death broke.

“Shame on them,” Lemon said. “I just found it to be disgusting. I cannot believe it happened. Every day I'm more surprised when that happens.”

Lemon played examples of anchors on Fox News quickly turning the news of Powell’s passing into a discussion about vaccines and also highlighted a twice-deleted tweet from Fox’s John Roberts, who also began to question the vaccine’s efficacy earlier in the day.

Lemon also pointed out that his peers at Fox News didn’t immediately mention that Powell had many underlying factors that contributed to his death, including his age and that he suffered from Parkinson’s disease as well as a blood cancer known as multiple myeloma — precisely the kind of “immunocompromised” condition that experts have said from the start could lead to lower vaccine efficacy.

And Lemon said that medical experts have already said that Powell’s death should not lead to any concerns about the efficacy of the coronavirus vaccines, but rather a further emphasis on getting vaccinated to help protect the more vulnerable parts of the population, like Powell.

Lemon went on to discuss the impact and importance of Powell’s contributions to the country over the years, and shared a few personal anecdotes from the time he spent with Powell and things they discussed. Which is probably why, while discussing Fox News’ coverage of Powell's passing, his frustration left him reaching for phrases like “don’t know any better” and “don’t have the chops,” when describing those anchors.

“Seriously?” he wondered after one clip. “A man just died and this guy can't wait to make it into a fight about vaccine mandates? It is disgraceful.”

Don Lemon Tonight airs weeknights at 10 p.m. on CNN.

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