Former CNN star Don Lemon was met with ire from a mouthy passerby during a man-on-the-street-style interview in Manhattan. ‘You’re a [expletive] moron, dude,’ the man is seen telling the 59-year-old journalist in the viral clip, which was filmed Sunday.

Lemon, visibly taken aback, is heard answering: ‘Thank you. So are you,’ before a noticeably tense altercation right in the middle of New York’s East Village. Seconds before, Lemon had approached the man randomly while filming a livestream. The two shook hands, at first, and appeared to speak through clenched teeth as the unnamed man addressed Lemon’s retaliation.

‘Except you haven’t heard anything I’ve had to say, and I’ve heard a whole bunch of what you have had to say,’ he tells Lemon in the clip, before releasing his grip and inching closer the reporter’s face. A seemingly baffled Lemon , at this point, says: ‘I’m glad you watch me’ – to which his guest clarifies, ‘No, I don’t!’ The man goes on to explain how he felt as though he’d been repeatedly bombarded with Lemon’s presence at every turn.

‘You just get clipped everywhere,’ he says, revealing how he used to watch networks like CNN and MSNBC – before realizing, in his words, that both were ‘full of [expletive].’ Lemon was fired by CNN in 2023 after 17 years in April 2023, weeks after saying on-air that women over 40 were past their prime. He appeared to seize the opportunity this time around, asking the man why he believed his old network and its rival were deceivers.

The man responds: ‘Cause they lie’ – leading Lemon to ask for examples. ‘Well, they lie about genocide,’ the man says. ‘They lie about all wars.’ Lemon disputes the answer, leading his guest to lose his temper even more. ‘Don’t tell me when I can speak,’ he says, wagging his finger in Lemon’s face while accusing the networks of offering favorable coverage to Israel. At this point, the man slammed Lemon – again – as a ‘moron.’

When asked why he kept repeating the insult, the man replies: ‘Because it just comes out, man. ‘Because you’re big and think that you’re something.’ ‘And what do you think you are?’ Lemon goes on to ask. ‘Oh, I’m just me,’ the man answers. ‘You’ve had a platform.’ The argument persisted from there. It was worsened when a passerby jumped to the man’s defense.

He randomly referred to Lemon as a ‘racist’ while walking past – to which Lemon shouted: ‘ Yeah, don’t waste your time with me, I’m a racist.’ Lemon invited him to speak as well, but the man refused. Following the altercation, the first man attempted to walk away with one parting insult to Lemon: ‘Don – go find a library.’ Lemon, visibly annoyed, answered, ‘Hey, let me tell you. Go find a life,’ while chasing the man down. The altercation ended there, as Lemon, turning away, told his viewers the man was ‘drunk’.

‘That was fun,’ he says in the original stream. ‘I like that. ‘I know it is beneath me. I shouldn’t have argued with that guy, but that’s okay. I like it. It’s fun.’ Lemon and CNN parted ways in early 2023, weeks after swift public outcry for seemingly sexist remarks about then GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley. ‘Nikki Haley isn’t in her prime. Sorry, when a woman is in their prime in 20s and 30s and maybe 40s,’ he told co-anchors Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins at the time.

‘Are you talking about prime for, like, childbearing? Or are you talking about prime for being president?’ Harlow, 40, asked, to which Lemon responded: ‘Don’t shoot the messenger, I’m just saying what the facts are.’ He added: ‘Google it. Everybody at home, when is a woman in her prime? It says 20s, 30s and 40s.’

Spurring an apology from the anchor hours later, the comments also caused Harlow to take a ‘well-timed’ bathroom break, followed closely by Collins, 31. The two came back to finish the show. A Variety investigation earlier that year unveiled allegations that claimed Lemon tore up the desk of his then co-anchor Kyra Phillips, sending her threatening texts via an unknown number after she was tapped for an assignment in Iraq that he wanted. Lemon has denied those allegations. He currently has 815,000 subscribers on YouTube.