Instant Alert: CNN's Don Lemon to Donald Trump: 'Some people may perceive you as racist'

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CNN's Don Lemon to Donald Trump: 'Some people may perceive you as racist'

by Colin Campbell on Oct 1, 2015, 8:30 AM

CNN anchor Don Lemon held an extensive interview with Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Wednesday during which Lemon asked Trump whether he was prejudiced against any of several different minority groups.

"I hear Hispanics talking about you. I hear gay people talking about you. And they say, 'I like what he has to say, but I'm just concerned,'" Lemon said.

"If I ask you this question, will you answer directly? Do you think that you are homophobic?"

Trump directly said "no," and he started listing all of the people whom he said he loved and who loved him back.

"You know who loves me?" he said. "The Tea Party. The evangelicals. You know I'm leading with evangelicals? I love them. They love me. I'm Presbyterian — I'm Protestant — and they like me. But you know who else likes me? Democrats like me. Liberals like me. It's straight across the board, and people are amazed."

Lemon then asked Trump whether he was biased against African-Americans.

"You think you appeal to African-Americans," he said. "Some people may perceive you as racist. Answer that."

Trump responded by touting his recent speech at an African-American Chamber of Commerce event in South Carolina. But he said the media, including CNN, had unfairly showed all of the empty seats in the back of the room.

"I did it as a favor to a couple of friends of mine who happen to be African-American who asked me to go," Trump said. "The dais was packed with people — packed with people! They were all up front. I could hardly get into the room. It was a great event. And CNN in particular made me look bad."

Those questions followed a segment discussing whether Trump was biased against Muslims. The business mogul stirred another campaign-trail controversy last month when he declined to correct a supporter who declared that Muslims were a "problem" for the country and that President Barack Obama was a Muslim foreigner.

"Do you think Muslims are a problem?" Lemon asked Wednesday.

"Well, I think a certain segment are certainly a problem," Trump said, "and unless you want to be so politically correct where you want me to say, 'Oh, absolutely not.' I mean, you have ISIS. You have the migration. You have all of this stuff," he added, describing his many Muslim friends.

"You know, a lot of people think you're going to end up with World War III over the Middle East. I've heard that for 25 years."