Don Lemon did not laugh at Maxine Waters. The video circulated online used a clip from 2018, and Lemon was dismissed from CNN in 2023.
The post included a voice-over, not from a CNN producer, commenting on the situation.
U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., appeared on “CNN NewsNight” on July 9 to discuss President Joe Biden’s candidacy. During the interview with anchor Abby Phillip about the Democratic strategy to defeat former President Donald Trump, Waters adjusted her hair for about 20 seconds before responding, “I think we need to keep working and work harder.”
A July 10 Instagram video combined this moment with another video from several years ago involving a different CNN anchor.
The Instagram video misleadingly makes it appear as though former CNN anchor Don Lemon was conducting the interview and laughing as Waters adjusted her wig. It included a voiceover asking, “What’s Don laughing at?” and commenting, “Can we get hair and makeup in for Maxine’s wig please?”
Text on the video read, “BREAKING: CNN producer caught on hot mic dealing with Maxine Water’s wig problem.”
According to Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed, the post was flagged.
The voice was identified as commentary by the account @stevenvoiceover, not a CNN producer.
The Lemon clip originated from a February 2018 episode of “Don Lemon Tonight.” During that segment, Lemon laughed after political commentator Symone Sanders-Townsend made a remark about Omarosa Manigault Newman, a former Trump administration staffer.
Symone Sanders-Townsend said, “Don. It’s Black History Month, we gotta talk about Omarosa? Carter G. Woodson did not go to the mat to get Negro History Week that eventually turned into Black History Month for us to talk about Omarosa and her apology tour and her attempt to salvage her reputation on a reality television show.”
This left Lemon laughing for an extended period before regaining his composure.
Manigault Newman, a former “The Apprentice” contestant, was fired in 2017 from the Trump administration and from the competition in the show’s first season. She later claimed on “Celebrity Big Brother” that she was “haunted” by Trump’s tweets every day.
We rate the claim that a CNN producer was caught on a hot mic about Waters’ recent interview as False.