Don Lemon
, CNN Newsroom Anchor
Don Lemon anchors CNN Newsroom during weekend prime-time and serves as a correspondent across CNN/U.S. programming. Based in the network’s New York bureau, Lemon joined CNN in September 2006.
A news veteran of Chicago, Lemon reported from Chicago in the days leading up to the 2008 presidential election, including an interview with then-Rep. Rahm Emanuel on the day he accepted the position of Chief of Staff for President-elect Barack Obama. He also interviewed Anne Cooper, the 106-year old voter President-elect Obama highlighted in his election night acceptance speech after he had seen Lemon’s interview with Cooper on CNN.
Lemon has reported and anchored on-the-scene for CNN from many breaking news stories, including the George Zimmerman trial (2013), the Boston marathon bombing (2013), the Philadelphia building collapse (2013), the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting (2012), the Colorado Theater Shooting (2012), the death of Whitney Houston, the Inaugural of the 44th President in Washington, D.C., the death of Michael Jackson (2009), Hurricane Gustav in Louisiana (2008) and the Minneapolis bridge collapse (2007).
Lemon has also anchored the network's breaking news coverage of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the Arab Spring, the death of Osama Bin Laden and Joplin tornado. Lemon reported for CNN’s documentary Race and Rage: The Beating of Rodney King, which aired 20 years to the day of the beating. He is also known for holding politicians and public officials accountable in his "No Talking Points" segment.
Lemon joined CNN after serving as a co-anchor for the 5 p.m. newscast for NBC5 News in Chicago. He joined the station in August 2003 as an anchor and reporter after working in New York as a correspondent for NBC News, The Today Show and NBC Nightly News. In addition to his reporting in New York, Lemon worked as an anchor on Weekend Today and on MSNBC. While at NBC, Lemon covered the explosion of Space Shuttle Columbia, SARS in Canada and numerous other stories of national and global importance.
In addition to NBC5 and NBC News, Lemon has served as a weekend anchor and general assignment reporter for WCAU-TV, an NBC affiliate in Philadelphia, an anchor and investigative reporter for KTVI-TV in St. Louis and an anchor for WBRC-TV in Birmingham. He began his career at WNYW in New York City as a news assistant while still in college.
In 2009, Ebony named him as one of the Ebony Power 150: the most influential Blacks in America. He has won an Edward R. Murrow award for his coverage of the capture of the Washington, D.C. snipers. He won an Emmy for a special report on real estate in Chicagoland and various other awards for his reporting on the AIDS epidemic in Africa and Hurricane Katrina. In 2006, he won three more local Emmys for his reporting in Africa and a business feature about Craigslist, an online community.
Lemon serves as an adjunct professor at Brooklyn College, teaching and participating in curriculum designed around new media. He earned a degree in broadcast journalism from Brooklyn College and also attended Louisiana State University.
Black America Web Featured Video
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They told you it would never happen.
The wise men and women of politics said — No way will Donald Trump make a real run for the White House.
No way will voters take him seriously.
No way will the mogul put his business on hold.
They said there were better, more serious candidates.
And – one by one by one – those candidates deemed better by the powers that be — dropped out.
There was this from Ted Cruz.
“With a heavy heart but with boundless optimism for the long term future of our nation we are suspending our campaign (no!)”
And then John Kasich dropped out.
Now – the man who may be the most improbable candidate in American history — is the last man standing.
“We’re going to win. We’re going to win in November. [Cheers and applause] and we’re going to win big and it’s going to be America first.”
And Donald Trump is gunning for Hillary Clinton, who by the way, has yet to seal the deal with Democrats.
And I’ve got to say — I told you so.
And no one believed me.
My liberal AND conservative friends — laughed.
Some of them even stopped speaking to me.
A friend of a friend even threatened to kick me out of his Christmas party in Brooklyn.
All because I told them Trump would be the Republican nominee.
Not that I supported him or ANY of the candidates.
But because I hadn’t seen a campaign like this since Barack Obama in 2008.
I interviewed Donald Trump numerous times early in this crazy campaign.
And people would approach me everywhere I went, look over their shoulders and say ‘Trump, I like that guy. I don’t always agree with him. But I could vote for him.’
But so many people underestimated Donald Trump and were blinded by their own personal ideology.
And now, it’s entirely possible we could wake up on November 9th with a President Trump.
Are you ready to take him seriously now?
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