CNN anchor Don Lemon disputed President Trump's characterization of Democrats as "an angry left-wing mob," saying that the people who are confronting Republicans and Trump supporters in public are simply "upset and they're angry" at the policies championed by the White House.

In a segment on his show Tuesday night, Lemon said it was wrong for Trump to call them mobs, because liberal voters are simply exercising their right to protest.

"Is it mob behavior? No, it's not mob behavior," Lemon said in a heated clash with conservative commentator Matt Lewis. "It's people who are upset and they're angry with the way the country is going."

Lewis contended that if conservatives confronted Democrats in the same way, that much of the media and elected Democrats would quickly label that "mob behavior."

[More: Trump claims protesters will get angrier ‘because they haven’t gotten their checks’]





Several high-profile Republicans have had confrontations with liberal and anti-Trump protesters.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders in June was asked to leave a Northern Virginia restaurant because, the manager said, she made the staff uncomfortable with her presence.

And Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, last month was also chased out of a restaurant by screaming protesters.

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., over the summer called for such confrontations.

President Trump has been aggressively campaigning for Republicans ahead of the midterm elections next month, hosting rallies in competitive districts and states.

At a rally in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on Tuesday, Trump said, "You don't hand matches to an arsonist and you don't give power to an angry left-wing mob, and that's what the Democrats have become."