As if this story didn’t leave Americans enough to argue about, CNN’s Don Lemon yesterday thought it would be a great idea to play, of all things, a clip from The West Wing that had gone viral earlier this week in reaction to Rowan County Kentucky Court Clerk Kim Davis (D) and her religious stance on gay marriage.
Lemon aired the clip on the September 9 edition of CNN Tonight for Kentucky Republican gubernatorial candidate Matt Bevin’s reaction.Yes. A news anchor kicked off a news story by playing a clip from a television show that's long been off the air and wanted the interviewee to weigh in on it.
The clip in discussion featured the fictional President Bartlet, played by Martin Sheen, and his long diatribe against cherry-picking Bible verses to bolster an argument. When Bevin didn’t fall for the “gotcha” tactic, he shot back at Lemon for being like the fictional president in the clip and “selectively choosing” Bible verses to fit their perception that Christianity is outdated.
Lemon said this was exactly what Davis was doing and as Bevin began to answer, Lemon chastised him:
“Hang on, will you let me finish? Will you let me finish and then you can answer the question. What she has done is picked the Bible verses that she wants to interpret them, in the way that she wants to interpret them, when there are many Bible verses that you can interpret literally and you can draw your own conclusion from.”
Bevin snarkily replied:
I appreciate your now theological expertise and I appreciate you sharing that with your audience, but the bottom line is this: What I have done as a guy running for governor is propose a solution whereby there’s equal protection under the law.
The Republican nominee for governor then added:
I have never heard one negative word, not one negative word from Kim Davis or any other clerks about homosexuals…All the violent commentary has come from the other side directed at her. And I would challenge any of your listeners and yourself to find evidence of anything being the other way around.
As the segment came to a close, Lemon tried to leave viewers with a profound statement, saying that people don’t have to be called names in order to be discriminated against.
