On the Grammys 2025 red carpet, Don Lemon tells THR he's excited to see content creators and influencers in the White House press room. Plus, will the White House be "bold enough and smart enough" to put Don Lemon in their briefing room? He tells us how he applied for the role.
00:00You're here at the Grammys tonight. Who are you most excited to see and maybe run into on the carpet?
00:04I would like to run into Kendrick. I ran into Kanye earlier and I said, I said, Kanye, I said, Kanye, when is your new album coming out?
00:13And he says, I changed my name to Ye. And I said, OK, Ye. And then he said, it's coming out this year.
00:18So I thought I broke some news, but he changed it. I don't know.
00:22I was about to ask you about album of the year. It's supposed to be a huge award tonight.
00:25Everybody's wondering, is Cowboy Carter going to win for Beyonce? Who's your pick to win album of the year?
00:30I would like it to be Beyonce, but I'll just leave it there. I would like it to be Beyonce.
00:39Yeah, I hope. I'm hoping. Like everybody else, I think. Yeah.
00:43We're here celebrating music tonight, but I have to ask you as a journalist, political journalist,
00:48what's your take on just the start of this Trump administration and kind of the state of politics in the state of America right now?
00:55I hate to talk about it right now because this is such a great relief from where we are and what's been going on.
01:03It's a lot of distraction. And I think we can't pay attention to the easy distractions, the way that they're trying to do it.
01:08Because they're trying to, with sleight of hand, you know, do big things that are actually going to change the trajectory of the country forever.
01:18And I think the media keeps looking at all of these little things, all these little distractions, half of which he can't implement.
01:25And I think we have to keep our eye on the prize and limit our exposure and then figure out what's important and focus on that, not all the distractions.
01:35I also want to ask you, they're opening up White House press briefings to influencers and independent journalists,
01:41not just, you know, the traditional CNN, ABC that we've seen in there for so many years.
01:45What's your take on that?
01:46I like that. I know it may sound strange, but I like it.
01:49I think that we are going, we're in an age now where content creators, streamers, podcasters have as much,
01:56well, maybe even more influence than traditional legacy media.
01:59And I think that we need to realize that. This White House realized that.
02:04I think the White House before, but they didn't lean into it as much.
02:07But we're in the content creator, influencer era.
02:12And so you've got to go where they're taking you.
02:15That's where you've gone. You're essentially an independent journalist right now.
02:19This is a tough question. I don't know if you want to answer, but did you apply to be one of these journalists in the press room?
02:25I did. Let's see what happens.
02:26Let's see if they're bold enough and smart enough to put me in the briefing room.
Be the first to comment