TikToker who clashed with Don Lemon in viral clip admits he 'didn't know who he was' at first
Goluremi CEO and TikToker William John admitted he didn’t know who ex-CNN host Don Lemon was before taking part in their now-viral video.
"I didn't know who he was originally. That's the funny thing," John told Fox News Digital. "He's one of those guys that's just on the news, you know, for, I don't know how long, nearly 15 years or something like this. And so, my videographer said, there's that guy. And I looked, and I recognized the face, but I don't know the name."
The former pro-soccer player came across Lemon last month when both of the men were giving man-on-the-street interviews for their channels. During the video, Lemon asked John to comment on the press and Democratic politicians claiming X CEO Elon Musk was the real shadow president.
"Democratic lawmakers in Washington are calling Elon Musk ‘President Musk’ now, and they’re saying Donald Trump is the vice president or the head of communication," Lemon said.
"What? Wait a second, no. No one said that," John said.
Lemon interrupted, "Really? Have you not paid attention—"
"Absolutely not. I’m paying attention to what I’m doing during my day, so I can try and get a better life and get ahead," John said, later calling it a "loaded question."
John described how Lemon "went to his talking points" in citing mainstream media outlets like ABC News and the Washington Post, a move John called "absurd."
"I don't watch the mainstream. And he signifies right now the problem that I think we as Americans are having with the mainstream," John said. "You are not connected to us, and the independent media is stepping up. And the reason we are becoming so powerful and so important to the American people is because there is a massive disconnect, and we feel lied to."
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Though he criticized Lemon’s behavior, John agreed he does have concerns over how much influence Musk has on President-elect Donald Trump.
"I think it's fairly impossible to state that the richest man in the world doesn't have an influence on things. We would all be quite, quite naive to believe that. Where and how much that influence is, is very hard for us on the outside to know. And I think that's obviously what is the troubling thing," John said.
Nevertheless, he considered it a "beautiful thing" that people across the world are "waking up" to the mainstream media being "caught in these lies," adding that the average viewers "feel we deserve better."
"Mainstream has already shifted," John said. "I think that's part of the problem is that when he's listing off these…Axios, Business Insider, ABC News, all these things, it doesn't carry the weight that it carried in the 80s or the 60s or then. That part is over. It's over. And so, the shift has already happened. The future is kind of here now."
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He added, "And I think people need to understand, as well as the mainstream media need to understand, that we're not necessarily looking to these forms of media as the be-all, end-all of the truth. Truth is still going to be difficult to discern, but at the very least, you're going to be dealing with a more informed public across the next five to 10 years. Because we can talk about it, discuss it and get information and pool that information together and make a more educated decision."