‘You’re Out of Your Mind’: Don Lemon Believes CNN Has No Chance of Winning MAGA Viewers By Being More Centrist

Ex-CNN star Don Lemon said soon-to-be CNN owner David Ellison is crazy to believe the cable news channel can win more viewers by covering stories from a centrist or right-of-center viewpoint, with Lemon saying MAGA voters are not interested in watching a “factual news network.”

He shared his take on CNN’s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery being bought by Paramount Skydance and what it means for his old channel during an interview with Bulwark podcast host Tim Miller on Saturday. The interview was part of the fifth annual New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University.

Lemon said he was talking to frequent CNN guest and Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary recently about CNN changing its slant. O’Leary said CNN needs to “come to the middle” to win viewers, according to Lemon — and Lemon let him know that idea is foolish.

“You’re out of your mind, that’s never going to happen, are you crazy?” he said. “Those folks are never ever going to watch CNN and they’re never going to watch any network that’s a factual news network.”

Lemon also said a moment earlier that Ellison and his Paramount Skydance “mistakenly” think “they’re gonna gain an audience by trying to move a network in a certain direction — in these days it’s to the right — because they think that audience is going to come to them.”

Lemon’s analysis comes after Ellison said earlier this month he wants CNN to appeal to more Americans who are “in the middle.” Ellison estimated 70% of Americans fall in there politically and that CNN can boost its ratings by trying to win them over.

“Really, who we want to talk to is the 70% of Americans — and really around the world — that identify as center left, as center right,” he said.

Ellison added, “we want to be in the truth business, we want to be in the trust business, and that’s not going to change.”

Lemon’s answer comes a month after he was hit with federal charges for storming into a church alongside anti-ICE protesters and wrecking a Sunday service in Minnesota. He said they are “baseless charges” and he was merely exercising his First Amendment rights.

Watch above via C-SPAN2.

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