On Thursday's CNN Tonight, Don Lemon hosted an all-liberal segment to react to leaked audio of President-elect Joe Biden advising caution in pursuing police reform because the slogan "defund the police" hurt Democrats in the elections.
No one objected as CNN political commentator Angela Rye made her latest stretch to insert slavery into a political discussion as she claimed that policing in the U.S. was designed to stop slaves from escaping and to "shoot to kill" some people while protecting others.
After CNN contributor and former New Orleans Democratic Mayor Mitch Landrieu was allowed to react to Biden's comments, when Rye had her turn, she asserted that police departments need to be "reimagined," and then immediately brought up slavery:
[W]e do need to talk about reimagining a system that from its outset was set up to return fugitive enslaved people back to their masters. And so what that means is that it was never designed to serve a whole segment of society. And so if we're going to talk about reimagining policing, Mitch, just like you've done all over the country, right, you have to get to the history of the thing. You can't reform a department that was designed to protect and serve some and shoot to kill others.
After Rye concluded her analysis by complaining that candidate Biden had not been as supportive of police reform as she had hoped, Lemon gave no pushback against any of her commentary as he responded: "I was thinking last time after had that conversation, I said, maybe it's 'refund the police.' I don't know, like it's just reallocating[.]"
Landrieu then jumped back in to agree with Rye:
I think Angela is right about this. The word "reimagine" is a better word. When I was mayor of the city of New Orleans, we had to completely reimagine our police department. And if the idea is to actually put money on the front end of investing in mental health, investing in substance abuse, investing in peer counselling, investing in violence intervention and trauma-informed care, and not necessarily on police and prisons, everybody knows that that makes a lot of sense.
Rye has previously likened ICE agents to the people who captured slaves hundreds of years ago. She also claimed that Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan reminded her of slavery and that MAGA hats are "just as maddening and triggering" to her "as a KKK hood."
This episode of CNN Tonight was sponsored in part by Philadelphia. Their contact information is linked.
Transcript follows:
CNN Tonight
December 10, 2020
11:45 p.m. EasternDON LEMON: So, Angela, you and I talked before about whether or not calls to defund the police hurt Democrats in elections. And, again, I think this is an important conversation to have, as I've said all along here, but what's your reaction to hearing this audio?
ANGELA RYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, the first thing I would say in response to Mayor Landrieu is that the one thing he [Joe Biden] did not say in that leaked audio was "reimagine" policing. And I think that's unfortunate. You know, we do need to talk about reimagining a system that from its outset was set up to return fugitive enslaved people back to their masters. And so what that means is that it was never designed to serve a whole segment of society. And so if we're going to talk about reimagining policing, Mitch, just like you've done all over the country, right, you have to get to the history of the thing. You can't reform a department that was designed to protect and serve some and shoot to kill others. And so what we really have to do is talk about whether it's defund or some other message. Divest to reinvest, you know, any of that. We need to have the frank conversations. If we're very honest and clear, what we know is Joe Biden, even during the campaign, was not a fan of defund, was not a fan of -- as we talked about before, Don, the Justice in Policing Act. He didn't even support all of that. And so it's fine he has his positioning, and he's clear about it. They still need to rely on data, and they still need to be careful about hurting the two candidates that we have running for the Senate in Georgia, which also came up during that meeting.
LEMON: I was thinking last time after had that conversation, I said, "maybe it's 'refund the police.'" I don't know, like it's just reallocating your --
MITCH LANDRIEU, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think Angela is right about this. The word "reimagine" is a better word.
LEMON: -- yeah.
LANDRIEU: When I was mayor of the city of New Orleans, we had to completely reimagine our police department. And if the idea is to actually put money on the front end of investing in mental health, investing in substance abuse, investing in peer counselling, investing in violence intervention and trauma-informed care, and not necessarily on police and prisons, everybody knows that that makes a lot of sense. The word "defund" can be taken out of context. It can be used against you. It can be manipulated. And so if we're just talking about words as opposed to talking about completely reimagining how to make communities safe -- and understanding that safety and security means different things to different people, then I think we have -- we have a lot to do together, and I think we ought to lean very heavily into making sure that the criminal justice system is changed institutionally from what it is today.
