Don Lemon speaks with ESSENCE about his book and the battleground states during Paint The Polls Black panel.
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00:00Hello, Mr. Don Lemon.
00:02Look, all you got to do is tell people,
00:04hello, Ebony McMorris,
00:06is that they need Jesus.
00:08And I've written all about it.
00:11So if you have a hater or someone you don't like,
00:13you have to read my book and it'll give you
00:17the game plan to call people you don't like.
00:23And you know what? I have to say that
00:25Congresswoman Williams really took my line
00:29about why, because I've been hearing,
00:30and we're going to talk about this, I'm sure, Alfonso.
00:32Well, I don't live in a swing state.
00:33I don't live in a battleground state.
00:34So what does it really matter to me?
00:36Why does my vote?
00:37You know someone who does.
00:38You have influence.
00:39You're on text messages.
00:40You talk to people all the time.
00:41You have family members, I'm sure.
00:43You have classmates.
00:44You have people, friends who are in battleground states
00:46and you affect other people.
00:50You're connected, whether you realize it or not.
00:53Just think about this.
00:55Just think about all the folks who were,
00:57all the women that I want to talk about later,
01:00who gave birth in fields.
01:03You know what I'm talking about?
01:05Right? In the field.
01:06All the lashes that Black men got.
01:11Women didn't have bodily autonomy,
01:12especially Black women.
01:14Black women had no kind of bodily,
01:15not just over their sexual organs,
01:17but just over their entire body.
01:18There was a point when Black men
01:19did not have bodily autonomy.
01:21Now, if you had said, you know what?
01:23My vote doesn't matter or the way I feel about slavery
01:26or any of this stuff, it doesn't matter
01:28because it's not going to affect me.
01:30Where would we be today?
01:31So that's it.
01:32Good evening, everybody.
01:33I'm coming in hot.
01:35You're coming in hot.
01:39Well, for folks who may not know you,
01:41let's do a formal introduction for folks here.
01:43Don Lemon, for folks who may not know,
01:45is a television journalist.
01:47He has worked all across the spectrum,
01:49from CNN to NBC.
01:51He is a recipient of the Edward Murrow Award.
01:54He's also received three Emmys for his journalism
01:57over the past several years.
01:59More than that.
02:01Yeah.
02:01Yeah, more than three.
02:02Yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:04He currently anchors the Don Lemon Show,
02:06which you all can watch on YouTube.
02:08And as a part of his show,
02:09he has also traveled the country
02:12to many of these battleground states.
02:14And he also found some time to write another book,
02:17which I think you just saw,
02:18I Was Once Lost,
02:21which was recently published by Hatchet Book Group.
02:23So Don, thank you again for joining us.
02:25Thank you, Alphonso.
02:26I'm sorry for coming in hot, guys,
02:28but I'm really, really motivated about this election,
02:31and especially considering what just happened today
02:35with Jack Smith, right?
02:36Trying to overturn this immunity thing.
02:38It is important for us to get there,
02:40to make sure that we have the right people in place,
02:42especially on the Supreme Court,
02:45so that we all have equal justice and equal rights
02:48under our constitution here in the United States.
02:50Uh, let's start with that book that you just referenced.
02:56Yes, sir.
02:57I want to make sure we create this through line
03:00for people who are watching.
03:01You've published a book,
03:03or worked with a publisher to publish this book,
03:05but you did it during an election year,
03:07during an election season.
03:09Why?
03:10Well, I mean, because you might say I'm crazy.
03:14I did, honestly, I started writing this book in 2022.
03:19And then I put it down after I was let go from CNN.
03:23I put it down for the summer,
03:25and then I picked it back up,
03:27and it became a much more personal book
03:29and very relatable to what's going on in the country.
03:31The book is not just about religion.
03:33It's about rights.
03:33It's about freedoms.
03:35It's about politics.
03:36It's about a woman's right to choose for reproductive freedom.
03:39It's about black men being marginalized.
03:43Sorry, I don't know why these things keep doing this.
03:45About black men being marginalized,
03:47about women being marginalized,
03:49about Native Americans,
03:51and on and on.
03:51Everything that's happening in the zeitgeist.
03:53But to be honest with you, really honest about Alfonso,
03:57it's because over the years,
03:59I had seen how politics,
04:01how religion had been affecting our politics.
04:03And that the line between church and state
04:06wasn't just being blurred by evangelicals, right?
04:09These toxic evangelical teachings
04:10and really edicts that they want to place on society,
04:13but it was being erased.
04:15And so I needed to be able to say something
04:18even beyond the anchor desk,
04:20something that people can pick up and read
04:22whenever they wanted to.
04:24So I finished the book, sent it to the publisher.
04:27It was originally supposed to come out after the election.
04:29The publishers read it and said,
04:31people need to go to the polls having read this book
04:34because this will reinforce their beliefs
04:37and it may change some minds.
04:39That's why I did it.
04:40And it's tough.
04:41Look, it's tough during election season.
04:43As you know, Alfonso, to get any oxygen in media
04:46for anything other than the horse race on the election,
04:49but you know, I'm doing it.
04:50Now, what would you say is surprised you the most
04:55about the feedback on this book?
04:57What is the most common feedback that you're getting?
05:00And then what has surprised you the most?
05:02The most common feedback that I'm getting in the book
05:04is that people who are non-believers
05:08are shocked when they read it.
05:09They're like, you know what?
05:10I have a whole different idea
05:12and a whole different approach about faith.
05:15Some of them say, you know, I thought about it
05:17and maybe I'm going to, maybe I am a believer,
05:19but not in the religious church way,
05:22or I don't believe,
05:23but this book helps me understand those who do.
05:27And it also helps me to understand
05:29what's important in our politics
05:31and why we need to be at this very critical moment,
05:35allies for each other,
05:37that we need to be fighting for democracy,
05:40that I need to understand my fellow man,
05:42especially women, again, with reproductive rights.
05:46By the way, that's my number one issue here,
05:47and I'll explain it to you later.
05:49And especially marginalized people,
05:51because no one is fighting for marginalized people.
05:54What they have done is they've tried to turn a representation
06:00into a pejorative, and that pejorative is DEI.
06:04For us, DEI means representation, right?
06:07In all forms, in all different places.
06:10And so there's like, well, now representation has become DEI,
06:13which has become like a bad word,
06:15and it's been co-opted by the right
06:17and by bigots and racists.
06:19And, but people are understanding that
06:21from reading the book.
06:23I want to ask you really quickly on the book.
06:29How transparent do you really get in this book?
06:35A lot.
06:35On, about what?
06:37I'll tell you.
06:37How transparent on what?
06:39When it comes to what you thought before,
06:42like, you know, watching,
06:43I've loved watching you on stand-in all the time.
06:45And I remember when you would have people coming in
06:48and they would throw out these questions
06:50about faith and about religion to you,
06:52or about sexuality.
06:54And I know sometimes being on broadcast TV,
06:57sometimes you can't say what you always want to say.
06:59So are you leaning on the line
07:01what you wanted to say on set,
07:02but now you're like, I do.
07:04I got my own show.
07:05I say what I want to say, when I want to sing it,
07:07how I want to sing it.
07:08Yes.
07:08If you watch the Don Lemon show, you will get that.
07:11And here's, this is the two things I'll tell you.
07:13The interesting thing is that I started the show
07:16just by doing sort of big interviews.
07:17Remember I started with Elon Musk
07:18and then, you know, D.L. Hughley and Monique
07:20and on and on and on.
07:22And so I, and then I realized, you know what?
07:24I'm not speaking to the subscriber and the viewers.
07:26I'm basically doing, having a similar approach
07:29as when I was in cable news with no,
07:32it was like a one-way conversation.
07:34So I started doing, I do a live show in the morning
07:36at 10 a.m. where I call Hot Topics,
07:38where I get everybody up to date
07:41on what they need to know for the day.
07:42And then I go away and then I come back at five o'clock
07:45and I speak to people about their day
07:47and catch them up on the news.
07:48And that's mostly, mainly politics
07:51and sort of more hard news.
07:53But the reason that I'm in this space,
07:56one of the reasons it is, Ebony,
07:57because I said what I wanted to say on cable news
08:02and on broadcast television.
08:04Some folks did not like that.
08:09And I think that that is lacking in our media today.
08:12We have so much false equivalency in our media today
08:15where people don't understand the difference
08:17between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
08:23You're an undecided voter?
08:25That's BS.
08:26No one on, I haven't heard anyone on cable
08:29and with at least a big voice or on broadcast television
08:32say people who are undecided
08:34are really just looking for an excuse
08:36and permission to vote for Donald Trump.
08:39Because who is undecided at this point?
08:41You know everything you know about Donald Trump.
08:43You know the danger that he is.
08:45You know what Kamala Harris is.
08:47How are you undecided?
08:48You're just looking for an excuse to support Trump.
08:51That's it.
08:51Well, I was going to ask you,
08:54what is your current viewpoint on the election
08:56and where we are right now?
08:57But you can...
08:59I can say now,
09:00I couldn't say that I support Kamala Harris
09:03when I was on traditional,
09:06I call it corporate media,
09:07but now I can say that.
09:08And I'm very happy,
09:09especially in this moment that I can say that.
09:11And I believe even in corporate media,
09:13there should be some transparency.
09:15There needs to be some people there
09:17who can tell you,
09:18hey, look, I'm telling you how I feel.
09:21So I'm not hiding my,
09:24how I feel about the election.
09:25Now I would not do that.
09:28And I don't think I would have done this
09:29even as an independent journalist,
09:31if had it not been for the unique and particular danger
09:35that is Donald Trump and MAGA and JD Vance.
09:39All you have to do is look at the evidence.
09:40That's not being biased.
09:42That's just being honest about supporting democracy,
09:45supporting truth,
09:47supporting integrity,
09:48and supporting the way our right as Americans,
09:52especially as African-Americans
09:53who also have a very unique relationship
09:55with this country,
09:56to be able to fight for our freedoms.
09:59They are trying to silence us through laws,
10:03by codifying laws.
10:05And I don't, that should not happen.
10:07And I think people should just be honest about it.
10:09And I think journalists should be as well.
10:10There's no comparison.
10:12There is no comparison to Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
10:17You know, we spent most of the evening
10:18talking about the battleground states, swing states.
10:22I know you've had an opportunity,
10:24you talked about it,
10:24but to travel to a lot of these states,
10:26to be on the ground.
10:28What do you hear on the ground
10:29that is often not reported?
10:32And even when we look at journalists on the ground,
10:34are they even asking the right,
10:36are they approaching it the right way?
10:37Asking the right questions?
10:39Yeah.
10:40So I don't know if you guys saw the work
10:43that I did at the convention
10:44and going to the convention.
10:46And basically, you know,
10:47when I was invited to the convention,
10:48I got invited to the convention
10:49by these strong, beautiful, respected Black women
10:54who said, your voice is not in this conversation.
10:57And we won't have that.
10:58Please come to the convention.
10:59We'll give you access.
11:01And I said, you know what?
11:01I'm not just going to fly to Chicago.
11:03I'm going to be respectful of the process
11:05and respectful of my ancestors.
11:08And I want to find out what is going on in this country
11:10so that I could report accurately.
11:12So what I found is,
11:14as I went across through these battleground states,
11:16through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana,
11:19and on and on and on.
11:20As I went to Illinois,
11:21as I went around to these states,
11:24I wasn't shocked or surprised,
11:27but it was eye-opening
11:28by the number of Black men and women
11:30who said that they were supporting Donald Trump.
11:33And the reason that they were doing it
11:34was for bad and false information,
11:37that they had no idea
11:38about what they were talking about,
11:39about the vice president's record and history
11:42as an attorney general or as a senator
11:45or as a prosecutor
11:49and the false narrative
11:50that she locked up all of these thousands of Black men,
11:53which simply was not true.
11:55Also the level of misogyny from people saying,
12:00they would say,
12:00I just don't think a woman
12:01should be running this country.
12:04I don't think that a Black woman
12:05should be running this country
12:07because they're too emotional.
12:09And they said that to my face.
12:11They would not say that
12:14to your average pollster or average focus group,
12:17because those people,
12:18to a person, I would interview them
12:20and they'd say,
12:21you know what, Don, I know you.
12:23They'd go, Don Lemon, oh my God, CNN, how are you?
12:26They said, okay, I'll tell you.
12:28But they're not going to open up
12:29to someone they don't know.
12:30They're not going to open up to Frank Luntz.
12:31They don't know Frank Luntz, right?
12:33They're not going to open up pretty much
12:35for someone that they have never seen before
12:37and they have no connection to.
12:40They said, you feel like a part of my family
12:41because you were in my living room for so long.
12:43So they were very candid and open to me about,
12:47I don't really care about pronouns, Don.
12:50And quite frankly, I know that you're a member
12:52of the LGBTQ community.
12:54I don't really care so much about that.
12:55What I care about is that prices are really high.
12:58Gas prices are really high.
12:59And I feel like under Trump that it was better.
13:02So then I would have to explain to them
13:04how the economy was better,
13:05how inflation was coming down,
13:07how the feds would soon be lowering interest rates
13:12because inflation is coming down.
13:14And so I had to educate them.
13:16Some of them believe it now.
13:17Some of the things that I told them have come true.
13:20Gas prices have come down since the convention,
13:22since I went across the country.
13:24Interest rates have come down.
13:26And so the Harris Biden economic plan is working.
13:31It just needs some time.
13:33And what they didn't realize
13:35is that the reason that we were in this place economically
13:39was because of the poor handling of the pandemic
13:43under the previous administration
13:45and that we are still in the previous administration's
13:48tax plan until 2025.
13:50They didn't understand those things.
13:52Also, if you give me a second,
13:57Donald Trump gave me a stimmy, a stimulus check.
13:59He's for the people.
14:00He's for the black folks.
14:02When I had to explain to them
14:03that that check did not come from Donald Trump.
14:05It came from Nancy Pelosi and a Democratic Congress.
14:08And the check was actually held up
14:10because Donald Trump wanted to put his name on it.
14:13And also Joe Biden gave you a stimulus check as well.
14:18And they're like, well, his name wasn't.
14:19And I said, yeah, because it said the federal government
14:22and his ego isn't so big that he has to put his name on it.
14:25So I had to explain,
14:26we have to educate our brothers and sisters.
14:28And that's why getting back to,
14:31if you're not in a battleground state,
14:34it is important for you to inform those
14:37who are in battleground states
14:38who may not know these things that we're saying
14:41because we're all connected.
14:42I saw that interview you did with that young man.
14:44It was hilarious because he was like, what?
14:47He was one of many, I gotta tell you.
14:50And so that was over a month ago.
14:52When was the convention?
14:53When was the convention, Ebony?
14:54It was August.
15:00Yeah.
15:00And so here we are in October, right?
15:03And finally, just last week
15:06or either earlier in the week,
15:07I see a panel on Morning Joe
15:11talking about the things that I reported on
15:13during the convention that really nobody,
15:16people were like, oh, come on.
15:18That's not gonna happen.
15:19The focus groups, the polling is not showing that.
15:23Historically, people don't do like that.
15:24And I'm like, all you have to do
15:26is get on the ground and talk to folks, right?
15:29Instead of like sitting on shiny desks
15:33with TV lights and cameras.
15:35And you'll find out exactly what's happening.
15:38You need gumshoe reporting
15:39and you have to have your ear to the ground.
15:41So, Don, how do you envision
15:43that we address the misinformation
15:46that is informing, unfortunately,
15:48so many people and their opinions about the election?
15:52I know you've sort of referenced,
15:55we have to make sure we engage and educate people.
16:00But how do you think we do that at scale?
16:03Well, I tell you who did a really good job
16:08and who's doing a good job of it,
16:09that I think that can be replicated
16:11by us in our personal lives.
16:13Did you guys see Joy Reid last night after the debate?
16:17When she pulled out the receipts
16:18on what JD Vance had lied about
16:21and how easy it was to go just do,
16:24he said, if you don't believe this,
16:25go to the housing department, go online.
16:31And you will see where it says this,
16:33and he lied about this.
16:35He says that he is not against abortion
16:39or whatever it is.
16:40And if all you have to do is go look at his website
16:43on his Senate page where it says,
16:45I am for banning abortion.
16:49So in your personal life,
16:51all you have to do is talk to those people
16:53because you know, you have some of them,
16:55you know, you have some in your life.
16:57And all you have to do is say, look, look, man,
17:00look, look, you know, girl, you know, ladies,
17:03I'm just saying that I'm not trying to be,
17:04you know, a sexist.
17:06Look, let me show you.
17:07I know that you believe this,
17:08but let me show you exactly what's happening.
17:10Let me show you why those people,
17:13the dock workers are out there,
17:15why they are really out there on strike.
17:18It's because of a bogus contract in 2018
17:21that Donald Trump put into place
17:23that turned people from millionaires to billionaires
17:27on the backs of the dock workers and union workers.
17:31So they said, you know,
17:32cause someone said to me on my show the other day,
17:35well, who's the president now?
17:39And whose responsibility is it now
17:41for those dock workers that they're going on strike?
17:43And I said, the responsibility was Donald Trump
17:45who put the contract in place.
17:47And so, which is another example
17:49of how he's looking out for millionaires and billionaires
17:52and not for the people who are like you and your family.
17:57Right?
17:58So you need to be able to say that
18:01with knowledge and vigor and strength
18:05to the people you love.
18:06You can text them, you can email,
18:08you can call them and say,
18:09hey, look, I give my subscribers a challenge.
18:13Say, look, I'm trying to get my subscribers up to 250,000.
18:18The other day we were at 247.
18:19I'm like, well, okay, it's been at 247 for so long.
18:22I said, take 10 people and text them an email
18:26and send them the link to this show
18:27and say, this is a Don Lemon show.
18:29You need to watch it and you need to go and subscribe.
18:32A day and a half later at 250,000 subscribers.
18:35Okay.
18:36So, which is a feat for the short time
18:38that the Don Lemon show has been streaming on YouTube.
18:40This is just on YouTube.
18:41This doesn't include Spotify and all that stuff.
18:42This is just for the YouTube channel.
18:44And so you can do that in your life.
18:46I challenge all of you to do the same.
18:48Take 10 of your friends if you wanna do a week
18:51or take 10 of your friends that you wanna do a day,
18:53if you can do that a day
18:56or just people who may be misinformed
18:59and just send them some information to say,
19:01hey, did you know this?
19:02Let me talk to you about this.
19:03I wanna make sure that you're voting.
19:05I wanna make sure that you wanna go.
19:07Hey, we can rent a van or something
19:09or we can get such and such as van or SUV or whatever.
19:13And we can all go to the polls.
19:14We can make it a thing.
19:16We can go to the polls and then later we can play space.
19:18We can go play cards.
19:19We'll have a cookout.
19:20We'll do whatever it is.
19:21We'll do the book club.
19:22We'll take the whole book club.
19:23There are ways in your personal life
19:26that you can have an impact as you say, Alfonso, to scale.
19:30Just do it in any way that you can.
19:34You know, Don, some people, they're not,
19:37it's not that they don't know who they would,
19:40would not vote for,
19:41but it's just simple voter apathy.
19:44So when it comes to-
19:44They're not motivated.
19:46Respondent or just simply tired of over this election season.
19:51And some may have been some who voted in the past
19:54and they feel like, does my vote matter?
19:57I know sometimes we don't talk about that down ballot
19:59as much as we really should as well.
20:02What do you say to those who are,
20:04just have voter apathy and who are despondent?
20:06I'm tired.
20:07That's valid.
20:08You're valid.
20:08People are tired.
20:09Especially, can you imagine living in a battleground state
20:11and every time you turn the TV on
20:12or you turn the radio on or you get the newspaper
20:14and you got mailings and stuff in the thing.
20:16And then you got the faces of the people
20:19and the slogans on rolling billboards.
20:21And I mean, it's like, it's overwhelming
20:23and it's exhausting, right?
20:25But you have to remember that there are, come November
20:29and anytime that there's an election,
20:30there's more than just a presidential election
20:32or a senatorial election, a congressional election.
20:34There are local things that need to be taken care of
20:37that affect you like the infrastructure
20:40of your city, state or town.
20:42That's all locally.
20:43The laws that are passed in your city, state or town,
20:46local legislatures.
20:47Think about what's happening in Georgia.
20:50When you look at what's happening
20:51with how they're trying to quite honestly,
20:54rig the system in favor of Donald Trump.
20:56These are local people who have infiltrated
20:59the local legislature and voting process
21:02by working as election workers and so on.
21:05We're going to get to decide whether the election
21:08at a local level can be certified
21:11in order to send it to the federal level.
21:16That all starts at the local level,
21:17your local judges, your aldermen.
21:19All of those things are important
21:20because it's closest to you and it affects you.
21:23So it's not just the presidential election.
21:25It doesn't trickle down.
21:27It trickles up.
21:28It's not like a trickle down economy.
21:30This trickles up.
21:31You elect people at your local level.
21:34The appellate judges are all at your local level.
21:36So if you're concerned about your treatment in court,
21:38let's just say that, you know,
21:40God forbid that you are abused
21:43by a police officer for excessive force
21:45or you're accused of something that you didn't do.
21:47Those judges who are appointed at the appellate level
21:50and at the local level really matter.
21:53And if all of those judges are conservative
21:55or right-wing or bigoted or racist, that affects you.
22:00And then if you believe in this whole thing,
22:02let's just say, because I don't believe in,
22:03you know, the whole, you know, when they say,
22:05you know, woke, woke, woke and all these things.
22:07If you think that that is too much,
22:09that also affects at a local level.
22:11If you want crime to be taken care of,
22:13that is at a local level.
22:15Innocents are proven guilty,
22:16but just think about what's happening
22:18with the mayor in New York City.
22:19That's at a local level here.
22:22That is a city and it happens to be the,
22:25you know, the largest city in the country.
22:26But I'm just saying, as an example,
22:29he's accused of corruption.
22:31You want to have people who represent you
22:33who aren't corrupt.
22:34I'm not saying the mayor of New York City is corrupt.
22:36I'm just using it as an example.
22:38On the ballot, there are several referendums
22:41that are coming up, at least, I believe six,
22:45talk about this when it comes to reproductive freedom.
22:48And you said early on, even when it comes to your book,
22:50that that's a big issue that you're interested in.
22:53Just really quickly, I just wanted, you know,
22:55since that is a major issue, why is it so important to you?
22:59Why is that so important to you?
23:00It's important to me because I've been surrounded
23:03by strong women in my life and women who I love.
23:05I am a product of a single mother
23:09who had three kids and had a divorce.
23:11And then whose husband died, you know,
23:14got remarried and husband died.
23:16And I was a product of that.
23:18And so it has always been, as I start in the book,
23:21I talk about, you know, I dedicate the book
23:23to the matriarchs of Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church,
23:26which is all the women and which is most mainly Black women
23:29who loved me and supported me
23:31and have taken care of me my entire life.
23:33And so it's very simple for me.
23:37If I don't know one law that tells me or Alfonso
23:43or any man what they can do with their body,
23:47especially with their reproductive or private organs,
23:51I just can imagine if someone tried to,
23:53imagine if someone tried to tell a man,
23:54you can't do this with your testicles.
23:57You gotta get, they'd be like, wait, what?
23:59I'm just saying it's in there somewhere.
24:03Am I lying?
24:04Am I lying?
24:04Am I lying, Ebony?
24:05I'm not lying.
24:06You're lying.
24:07Okay.
24:07I'm not lying.
24:09Well, they don't have, that does not exist.
24:12And so if they come for our sisters,
24:16Black, white, red, green, all of our sisters,
24:19they will come for us.
24:21And so when one person's rights are being infringed upon,
24:25that means all of our rights are being infringed upon.
24:29And so I stand on business and I stand on allyship.
24:32And then there's also a story in the book.
24:34I don't know how much time we have.
24:35I wish I could read it.
24:36If it's a short passage, if you will allow me,
24:39but I have a little bit of time.
24:42I write about, as I was researching this book,
24:45I called my friend and I was just talking to her, right?
24:47I was just talking to her.
24:48And she told me about this story and I was shocked, right?
24:52I mean, talk about a wake-up call.
24:54So this is not her name, but I call her Fiona, okay?
24:58So I'll read fast.
25:00So in the late 1980s, Fiona and her husband
25:02were happily expecting their second child.
25:04She was well into the second trimester
25:06when things took a tragic turn.
25:08We couldn't afford an ultrasound,
25:10so we didn't know anything was wrong
25:12until my water broke and I went into labor.
25:14They said the fetus had developed in a way
25:16that was incompatible with life.
25:18And I was like, what does that even mean?
25:21Basically, the organs were growing outside its body.
25:23My husband was crying.
25:25I was in a lot of pain and scared shitless
25:27at risk of sepsis and no one was helping me.
25:29They said I couldn't have food or water
25:31because I might need emergency surgery.
25:33And they couldn't give me anything for pain
25:35because it might slow down the labor.
25:36And they couldn't give me anything to speed up the labor
25:39because that would be a late term abortion,
25:41which was illegal.
25:42I had to wait for the fetal heartbeat to stop.
25:45After three days, I was just begging,
25:47help me, please, you have to make it stop.
25:50And the nurse said, instead of begging for an abortion,
25:53you should be praying for a miracle.
25:55And then she offered to pray with me.
25:57I guess that was her way of trying to help me maybe,
25:59or maybe just a way to feel better about herself.
26:03Decades later, Fiona told me this story
26:06with tears in her eyes.
26:07When I was in college, she said,
26:08I was a victim of a violent sexual assault.
26:11On so many levels, this was worse.
26:13And in some ways, it felt exactly the same.
26:16I didn't know what to say other than,
26:18oh, Fiona, I'm so sorry that this happened to you.
26:2130 years, and it's no better, she said.
26:23It's actually worse.
26:24Women will suffer and die over this.
26:27I asked her if the experience
26:28had had any effect on her faith.
26:30And she said, you can't blame God,
26:32but my faith in people certainly went to hell.
26:34I haven't been back to church since then.
26:36I was a Republican before.
26:38Now I'm independent.
26:39I will never again vote against a woman's right
26:42to make private medical decisions.
26:44It's about so much more than abortion,
26:46and it's so not how the pro-life movement sold it to us.
26:52That is what we need to know.
26:55And there are other instances in this book,
26:57just by researching it, that I came across
26:59that are pertinent to the election
27:01and why you need to be on the side of democracy.
27:06It's about the Supreme Court in November.
27:09Do not get it twisted.
27:14Mr. Don Lemon, thank you.
27:17Thank you for carving out some time.
27:23My search for God in America.
27:25It's from, you know, Amazing Grace is where it's from.
27:29Thank you so much for joining us, Don.
27:31Love you guys.
27:32I really appreciate it.
27:33It was an honor.