#CNN’s Don Lemon warns Dems about not addressing riots: ‘It’s not going to go away’

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The protests in Kinosha, and Don Lemmon.
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CNN anchor Don Lemon is warning Democrats that they’ll face consequences on election day for ignoring rioting across the country — saying it represents a “blind spot” for the party.

“I think Democrats are ignoring this problem, are hoping that it will go away,” Lemon told fellow anchor Chris Cuomo during his 9 p.m. Tuesday handoff. “And it’s not going to go away.”

Lemon agreed with Cuomo’s take that the ongoing unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, since Jacob Blake, 29, was shot by police on Sunday represents a “Rorschach test for the entire country” — and said Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden “may be afraid” to address it before the Nov. 3 election.

“So the problem is not going to be fixed by then, but what they can do, and I think maybe Joe Biden may be afraid to do it — I’m not sure, maybe he won’t, maybe he is,” Lemon said. “He’s got to address it. He’s got to come out and talk about it.”

Lemon said Biden would benefit from delivering a speech like President Barack Obama did in 2015 in the aftermath of the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man whose police custody death led to weeks of rioting in Baltimore.

“He’s got to come out and tell people that he’s going to deal with the issue of police reform in this country and that’s what’s happening now is happening under Donald Trump’s watch,” Lemon said of Biden.

Lemon suggested that Biden and his VP pick, Sen. Kamala Harris, could be biding their time to address the issue once they’re elected. But the CNN anchor predicted that might be too late.

“But guess what? The rioting has to stop,” Lemon continued. “Chris, as you know and I know, it’s showing up in the polling. It’s showing up in focus groups. It is the only thing – it is the only thing right now that is sticking.”

Biden eventually spoke out in a tweet Wednesday afternoon, saying Blake’s death made him “sick” but calling for an end to violence.

“Is this the country we want to be?” Biden tweeted. “Needless violence won’t heal us. We need to end the violence — and peaceful come together to demand justice.”

CNN reported that one poll found 53 percent of respondents think demonstrations following the police custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis are “mostly legitimate,” down from 62 percent in June. Some 38 percent said the protests comprised of “people acting unlawfully,” up from 28 percent in an earlier poll.

“That’s a big shift, even though it’s still most of the people in this country,” Lemon said. “It is a shift and something that should be paid attention to.”

Lemon’s remarks came as a gunman with a long rifle fired into a crowd late Tuesday in Kenosha, killing two people and injuring another.

Three nights of unrest has overtaken the Wisconsin city following the police shooting of Blake, who survived but was left paralyzed from the waist down, according to his family’s attorney.

Biden also publicly denounced looting and rioting in June after Floyd’s death, The Hill reports.

“No place for looting or destroying property or burning churches or destroying businesses — many of them built by people of color who for the first time were beginning to realize their dreams and build wealth for their families,” Biden told supporters in Philadelphia at the time.

With Post wires