During the CNN handoff between hosts Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon, the latter was insistent that regardless of protocol, if you trash a former president you shouldn't be at their funeral.
"But what did George 43 do? Out of deference to his father, he went in there. It wasn't a long shake. It wasn't a bro hug," Cuomo noted. "Shook his hand, moved on, shook his wife's hand, and then brought the love for the Obamas and the Clintons even though they're not on the political same side. What is that? It was about humanity -- the president should have done the same. He snubbed the Clintons. You could say, well, the Clintons were snubbing him. Somebody's got to be bigger, especially in the president."
But Lemon noted that if he didn't like someone that much and had "talked as much smack" as Trump did about both Bush presidents, he wouldn't show up at all.
"I would not show up at their funeral, OK? That's reality. Do people you hate -- you don't like in real life, who are not in political life -- do you show up at your enemy's funeral?" Lemon wondered.
Cuomo said he probably wouldn't be invited, but when it's the presidency, George H.W. Bush wanted presidents to feel welcome.
"You represent the American people, and you should wear that on your sleeve every day," Cuomo said.
"I think you respect the person, living or dead," Lemon agreed. "An office is not a human being. I don't think it's respect for the human being if you talk smack about them, if you say the nastiest things about them, if you treat them as subhuman, and then you want to show up at their funeral. Really? Hell to the no."
Watch the full discussion below:
