CNN commentator Lord defends his likening of Trump to King

NEW YORK — CNN commentator Jeffrey Lord tweeted clips of speeches from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the overnight hours Friday, capping a strange day where he stepped on a third rail of American politics by suggesting viewers think of President Donald Trump as "the Martin Luther King of health care."

Lord made his comparison on CNN's morning "New Day" on Thursday and ended the day in a shouting match with CNN's Don Lemon. He was the subject of social media derision and outrage during the hours in between, illustrating what some critics suggest is cable television's ability to bring heat, if not light, to an issue.

Lord, a political commentator and contributor to the American Spectator who worked in the final years of the Reagan White House, is one of a handful of pro-Trump commentators that CNN hired during the last election. Generally amiable, he's gotten into a few rough exchanges with other CNN pundits, most notably Van Jones on election night.

Fellow commentator Symone Sanders' eyes widened in astonishment when Lord first equated Trump with the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize winner. "There is no similarity," she said.

Lord explained in a column he later wrote for CNN.com that he was equating a reported Trump threat to withhold payments to health insurers in order to get Democrats to the negotiating table on health care reform with King's demonstrations as a tactic to force congressional action on civil rights in the 1960s.

"Both men used or are threatening to use crisis to pass legislation," he wrote. "There is nothing in the least wrong in saying so."

Lord said during his appearance on Lemon's show that "there are no people of color. There are only Americans," a view that black commentators said was naive and didn't reflect their lives. During one testy exchange, Lord compared Lemon, who is black, to Bull Connor, the former Birmingham, Alabama public safety commissioner who fought civil rights marches.

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