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LEMON: “Number one, I don’t know Bill de Blasio. Listen, I’m not defending him about black-owned businesses because the looting and rioting that happened here happened on Fifth Avenue. I don’t know a lot of black folks that own Gucci stores and Chanel stores and what have you. Okay? The second thing is —“
UNKNOWN: “That’s fair. There are black-owned businesses in other cities that are being destroyed. That’s my point.”
LEMON: “Yes. Okay, fine. I’ll give you that. The other point is, when you talked about what happened in Ferguson, no, I don’t know if it’s Barack Obama’s fault. But did it happen on Barack Obama’s watch? Yes. Did it happen in Barack Obama’s America? Yes. So now this is Donald Trump’s America and it’s happening on Donald Trump’s watch. He may not be directly responsible, he’s not out there looting and doing whatever, but it is his America and he has to take responsibility for what happens on his watch, just as Barack Obama had to take responsibility for what happened on his watch.”
CUOMO: “And remember, Don, Obama sent in the DoJ to investigate the whole thing and the police department. We haven’t seen any of that here.”
LEMON: “None of that. So he cannot say this is Joe Biden’s America because Joe Biden is not president. I rest my case. Go on, Kirsten.”
UNKNOWN: “I know Kirsten —“
POWERS: “Can I talk?”
LEMON: “Yes, yes.”
UNKNOWN: “You talk, and then I’ll talk.”
CUOMO: “I came to you first.”
LEMON: “Go ahead, Kirsten.”
POWERS: “First of all, the Republicans did blame Barack Obama all the time for things that happened in cities. For example, they talked about Chicago the entire time he was president. So, and yet I don’t think Chicago has changed that much under Donald Trump. So, you know, I do tend to think that these are more local issues and the issues that are causing them aren’t things necessarily — I mean, Chicago, for example, guns that are brought in from other states and there’s gun laws and things like that. There’s not a lot a president can particularly do about that. I do think rhetoric obviously matters, but I think ultimately the reason the protests are happening — and let’s be honest, and Don, you do make this point over and over, there’s very little rioting. Like, that’s actually — there’s very little violence, it’s — but it’s magnified by Donald Trump and it’s magnified by Republicans to convince people that people are coming for them. And that’s just simply not what’s happening. But the fault is I think with the government and I think with all of us that nobody has really dealt with the fact that you have police shooting unarmed black people repeatedly and often not being held accountable for it. That is a problem that the entire country is responsible for, Republicans, Democrats, everybody.”
