On Tuesday, CNN host Don Lemon said that former President Barack Obama should be added to Mount Rushmore, a national monument that displays George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt.
During a discussion with CNN anchor Chris Cuomo over the California couple charged for waiting over a “Black Lives Matter mural, Lemon said, “You see the right-wing machine kick in, media kick in and see Trump’s poll numbers go south. They kick in with Democratic cities are in chaos right now. Is this what you want from Joe Biden? And they are taking your country away sand they are going to take down statues. Crime is rising. It’s so bad. Oh my, defund police. And the people who you saw there for the most part —not specifically, as a whole, fall for it. They fall for it. That’s why they do things like that. They want to paint over signs and think it’s our country. This is the country that we built. Even though a rich diversity of people helped build the country, and many of us, meaning ancestors, for free — did not get paid for it, could not get an education, could not build wealth, are not on statues, Confederate or otherwise, are not on Mount Rushmore. I think, listen … if they are going to put someone on Mount Rushmore, considering the history of the country, the first black president should be front and center.”
Chris Cuomo agreed this would be the best option.
“Add to Mount Rushmore. I think that’s first of all, it’s a more salable idea than the idea of taking away Founding Fathers,” said Cuomo.
“So what’s wrong with all of us together thinking or reshaping our country so that more people rethink our country in the way we think and where priorities are so the country it belongs to everyone.”
Cuomo said, “Nothing is wrong with it.”
Lemon said, “Maybe some of the people up there on Mount Rushmore, who knows? The name shouldn’t be Mount Rushmore if you talk to Native Americans. It is stolen land. It was only Mount Rushmore 40 years before they started to carve presidents’ faces in it. No one got any money for that.”
Cuomo said, “You’re totally right. The premise is where we have to work toward, which is if we all decide. It’s about consensus and collective consciousness.”
