On Monday’s Morning Joe, New York Times Chief White House Correspondent Peter Baker was welcomed onto the panel to discuss his and his colleagues’ latest report about President Trump’s TV news-watching habits. In the course of discussing the piece, MSNBC National Affairs Analyst John Heilemann made a point of bringing up how Trump’s favorite nightly news show to hate-watch is, reportedly, CNN Tonight with Don Lemon. Heilemann tried and failed to get Baker to pin Trump’s dislike of Lemon on the President’s supposed hatred of African-American people before turning to Princeton Professor Eddie Glaude Jr., the show’s only black panelist, for backup. Glaude did not explicitly agree with Heilemann, but was clearly amused by Heilmann’s “slightly devilish” suggestion.

Watch the segment yourself to get the full context of Heilemann’s comments:

HEILEMANN: Obviously, Trump watches, as you report in this sh-, in this piece, watches this show occasionally, you say, to get worked up in the morning. BAKER: [agreeing] M-hm. HEILEMANN: The show that works him up in the evening, you report, and I, I believe on the base of my reporting this is true, is Don Lemon at CNN. BAKER: [agreeing] M-hm. M-hm. HEILEMANN: So I'm curious, a lot of people have asked this question after the story came out: What is it – I'm asking this in a slightly devilish way, perhaps – what is it about Don Lemon that annoys the President so much? [chuckles from panel, including Baker] BAKER: Well, it’s a good question. Look, Don Lemon is, is, is pretty, uh, pretty, you know -- he’s uninhibited in what he says sometimes on the show. He gives his opinion in some ways -- he, he frames the issues in a way that clearly gets under the President's skin. Uh, I think that, you know, he likes this jolt of, of television he doesn't agree with. It's kinda hate watching, you know, he watches something that he knows is gonna rile him up. It’s like a, it’s like a big cup of caffeine. And, uh, uh, it's, uh -- most people try to avoid things that make them upset, but I think that President Trump – he gets a charge out of it. It’s part of how he operates. MIKA BRZEZINSKI: [interrupting] He has a different reaction. BAKER: Yeah. And it's not new. This is not new to his, his lifestyle. This is the way he’s, he’s gone for a long time. It just happens to be new to this particular White House. JOE SCARBOROUGH: Well, and-. HEILEMANN: [interrupting] I’m curious, I'm curious if Eddie has any views about why Donald Trump might be more, might be more, more upset about Don Lemon. [laughter from panelists and off-set, followed by lots of cross talk until Joe picks up convo] GLAUDE: Why me? [repeats several times while Heilemann speaks, then laughs] HEILEMANN: I’m just curious. Eddie has -- Eddie, you’re an astute, you’re an astute commentator on media [inaudible]. I just didn’t know him. What do you say? SCARBOROUGH: [trying to cut in] It’s, it’s, you know what? BRZEZINSKI: [inaudible] that. I saw it. SCARBOROUGH: I, I, I’ve gotta say -- Peter won't say it, I will. Um, it's the last name – Lemon. BRZEZINSKI: Yeah. [laughter from panel] SCARBOROUGH: Because he has this reaction to that. BRZEZINSKI: [interjecting] I bet it is. SCARBOROUGH: And it's, it’s a negative lemon. Bleh.

Heilemann probably expected Glaude to back him up because of what the professor had said earlier on at the beginning of the morning show’s broadcast. More specifically, the Princeton academic used a personal experience of racism from his childhood growing up in Mississippi to paint not just the South, but all of America as a fundamentally racist country: