Black unemployment reached a record low of 5.5 percent in the month of August. While CNN Tonight host Don Lemon and his panel acknowledged the statistic Friday night, they did their best to downplay it and rejected the notion that President Trump deserved any credit for the strong economy. In addition, Lemon argued that when black voters go to the polls in 2020, they should prioritize the President’s “racist behavior” over the strong economy.

Lemon argued that President Obama deserved the credit for the low black unemployment numbers because after reaching 16.8 percent in March 2010, the black unemployment rate dropped to 7.9 percent by the end of his term; a difference of 8.9 percent. Lemon pointed out that the highest black unemployment rate during President Trump’s term in office was 8 percent while the lowest is 5.5 percent; a difference of only 2.5 percent.

Based on difference alone, it would be impossible for President Trump to meet President Obama’s number because the difference between 8 and 8.9 percent is a negative number. Nonetheless, Lemon stressed that “it is good news, it is a good trend but it didn’t start under this President and the numbers actually declined much stronger under the former President.”

At this point, Lemon began playing the race card by asking “how do black voters in 2020 weigh these low employment numbers against the President’s racist behavior?” Lemon cited “Charlottesville” and “slamming Baltimore” as “rodent infested” as examples of President Trump’s “racist behavior.”

"Republican strategist" Joseph Pinion, who appears to share Lemon’s disdain for President Trump, argued that “the message” should outweigh “the numbers.” According to Pinion, “if someone spits in your face and hands you a napkin, you don’t get to say thank you.”

Echoing the position of a church in Alabama claiming that “a black vote for Trump is mental illness,” Lemon implied that blacks who support President Trump because of the economy are misguided: “Does that mean the only part of your brain or the only part of our being that matters is money? Rather than how someone treats you and what someone says about you?”

CNN commentator Keith Boykin, a former aide to President Clinton, closed the conversation by contending that “Donald Trump had little to nothing to do with…the drop in unemployment for African-Americans,” adding “no one who talks about this in the Republican Party can cite a single policy contributed by Donald Trump that is responsible for the drop in black unemployment.” Boykin made sure to credit the drop in black unemployment to “policies started long ago in the Obama administration,” rejecting the idea that it was “the tax cut or anything like that.”

One prominent member of the African-American community, BET founder Bob Johnson, disagrees with the notion that President Trump deserves no credit for the economy, telling CNBC “I give the president a lot of credit for moving the economy in a positive direction that’s benefitting a large amount of Americans.” He also argued that “the “tax cuts clearly helped stimulate the economy.” It appears that Trump Derangement Syndrome prevents Lemon and his panel from reaching the same conclusion.

A transcript of the relevant portion of Friday’s edition of CNN Tonight is below. Click “expand” to read more.