President Trump has had the Kennedy Center renamed the Trump-Kennedy Center, and the left is going absolutely ballistic over it. Such is what happened as CNN panelists Cari Champion and Brianna Lyman threw down during a broadcast on Saturday, December 20. Lyman, a conservative, took the stance that leftists were perfectly fine with name changes during the aftermath of 2020, and so shouldn’t care about this.
For reference, the name change came after the board of the Kennedy Center, of which President Trump is the chair, voted unanimously to change the name somewhat. Now, the name on the building reads, “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”
Lyman, defending the move during. her appearance on CNN Saturday Table for Five, said, “You know, I, to be honest, I didn’t spend too much time looking at this because I didn t think it was that big of a deal given the grand scheme of things that happened this week. But I personally don’t care that much, but I do find it funny, Paul, that you care and that the Kennedys care because no one in your party cared in 2020 when you guys were changing names of hospitals, parks, schools, streets, everything in the name of George Floyd.”
Adding to that, she referenced the Floyd cultural revolution, saying, “Wikipedia has an entire page called “list of name changes due to the George Floyd protests.” It is the longest Wikipedia page I’ve ever seen. So people who are up in arms about name changes now were mostly silent. The second point I’d make, I think it’s really disingenuous for the Kennedys and for anyone to sit here and pretend like they care so much about the Kennedy Center because I don’t know how many of you guys have been to the Kennedy Center prior to Donald Trump taking office.”
Adding to that by commenting on how the Kennedy had been a disaster before Trump took over, saying, “I was there in 2023. I wasn’t a VIP box. That should be pretty nice. The seats were stained. I literally sat down, I was like, is this wet? Is this fresh? The floors were dirty. This is a place that was decrepit. And all of this on top of people getting exorbitant salaries.”
She then said, noting that the pre-Trump government had been a disaster, saying, “So people who were running the Kennedy Center or who claimed to love and care about the Kennedy Center said nothing when it was falling into disrepair, and President Trump comes in, they are renovating, they cut salaries that were needlessly high, they’re bringing people to come and see the arts for once. It was not that lively of an institution under the Biden administration. So don’t pretend like you care about the Kennedy Center now when you were quiet when it was falling into disrepair.”
Champion, chiming in, insisted, “Well, first thing, you refer to 2020 in the name of George Floyd. I think it wasn’t just in the name of George Floyd.” She continued, “I think that this country had a racial reckoning and they understood — Please let me finish because I let you finish — They had a racial reckoning and they understood that this country had done some things that were very unfair, especially to marginalized [people], especially to Black people, and they were giving tributes and statues to people who were slave owners who were considered heroes at one point.”
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Lyman, chiming in, said, “Like Jefferson and Washington.” Champion responded, “Yeah, well, I can tell you what else he did. I can tell you what else Thomas Jefferson did.” That then led to Lyman snapping back, “Being a slave owner was not the only thing about Thomas Jefferson.”
Champion responded with visible anger and annoyance to that point, saying, “I’m still talking. And the second thing is is that once they realized that these people, according to history, were not really the heroes that they had been portrayed as.” Lyman fired back, “They absolutely were the heroes.” Champion insisted, “They realize that they had [done] awful things to people who did not deserve it, who could not speak for themselves.”
The two then kept arguing about the Founders, and Champion freaked out after being rebuked for insulting them, snapping, “I’m speaking freely because I’m a free Black woman and I’m allowed to speak freely.” She then went on to insist, “The reality is that they may have over corrected but right now they’re over correcting in another way. The fact that Trump is putting his name on every single thing and you want to normalize it like it’s normal tells me that you’re the problem and not the solution.”
Watch them here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video