-Have you ever been in any
moment like this in your career,
and would you compare this
to anything?
-I mean,
I went through Ferguson.
I went through Freddie Gray
in Baltimore.
I've been in, you know,
in the middle of it.
As we're talking about
people who are protesting
and that sort of thing.
-Yeah.
-But I have not been in anything
that is this surreal
and where we're really --
we're at a precipice right now.
We're at a moment
where people need to understand
that, if you believe
in law and order,
then you need to believe
in equal treatment
by the law, right?
If you care
about keeping law and order,
then you need
to care about lives
as much
as you care about property.
And so,
if you're concerned and upset
about property being lost
and things being burned,
which is -- which is --
it should not be happening.
I'm not condoning that --
but you should care equally
about the lives
that have been lost.
And if you --
-Yeah.
-And when someone says,
"I don't --
I don't condone the action,
I don't agree with the action,
but I understand the anger,"
right?
And then the --
the answer to that
or the response to that is,
"Well, then, yes, you are --
then you are telling people
to go out there and riot."
No, I'm not telling people
to go out there and riot.
But tell me
what the proportional response
to mass murder
over the years is.
What is a proportional response
to that?
-Yeah.
-When you -- When you --
When people have --
Dr. King wanted
peaceful nonviolence.
They killed him.
Things got marginally better.
We got --
Well, things got better,
but not perfect.
We never reached
the Dr. King dream.
And then let's just move forward
to Colin Kaepernick,
who got -- who sought the advice
of a war veteran,
took a knee,
peacefully protested
during the national anthem.
-Totally peaceful.
-Totally peaceful.
Knee, right?
The metaphor --
I mean, it writes itself,
and then you have the knee now.
-Yeah.
-So if you don't want people
to protest peacefully,
if you don't get anything --
he got fired.
He lost his job in the NFL,
was castigated.
The president called him son --
a son -- sons of bitches --
right? -- with --
and all the other people
in the NFL.
And then, when people are upset
because it happens --
the very thing
that he was fighting for
happens in front
of our very eyes
and people become upset
and they take to the streets
and they start to protest,
and then you say,
"Well, why aren't you
protesting peacefully?"
Well, we -- they -- you tried.
So what would --
what do you have people do...
-Yeah.
-...who are trying to have
their issues looked at?
What do you --
What would you have them do?
The government's not doing it.
-Yeah.
-So what do you do?
You can't -- You're gonna --
You want to tell people
how to protest,
but you can't accept either
doing it peacefully or not.
And so, if there is no avenue
to protest peacefully
or to protest not peacefully,
then that means that you have
made a calculation in your head
that black people
in this country
have no means --
or to have rights,
the same rights that you have,
especially when it comes
to the police department --
or just at all --
'cause
you can't protest peacefully,
and you can't get radical,
as you would call it.
So, then, what's -- what --
what's the means?
What do you do?
-Is there anything you've seen
from the past week
that maybe is a silver lining
or anything positive or...?
-Yes,
that this country is broken,
or maybe it needs to be broken
in order to fix it.
And maybe that's
what we're doing right now.
I don't like seeing
all the violence,
I don't like seeing the rioting,
but I do --
I am heartened by all the young
people who are out there,
fighting for their rights,
and who are saying
enough is enough
and the time has come,
and by the diversity of people
who are out there.
It's not just black kids,
it's not just kids of color --
it's white kids out there,
too --
young people and older people,
and they've had enough.
And I think that maybe
it has to break all the way down
so that we can fix it
and put it back together.
And I know some people may think
that sounds ominous,
but, for me, that's positive --
that's a glass half-full,
'cause we cannot go back
to the way it was.
We can't.
-Don Lemon, keep crushing it.
And I really --
I watch you every single night.
Thank you, thank you, thank you
so much for all of this.
And I can't wait to talk to you,
hopefully in person, soon.
-Yes, absolutely.
Thank you, my brother.
-Bye, bud.
