'Y'all are getting played': Roland Martin says Jeffrey Lord 'MLK' fight is exactly what CNN wants

News One Now host -- and former CNN political commentator -- Roland S. Martin went on a Friday morning Twitter rant about the controversy surrounding Trump surrogate Jeffrey Lord's Thursday comments calling President Donald Trump the Martin Luther King Jr. of healthcare.

The controversy -- which began Thursday morning, continued through the afternoon and climaxed Thursday night with host Don Lemon shutting down his show early in frustration -- Martin said, is manufactured.

"Y'all are getting played," he tweeted. "Anyone with a brain knows Jeffrey Lord is nuts. But his antics on @CNN are meant to go viral."

Martin continued, "Execs there WANT Jeffrey Lord's nutty comments. Why? To keep YOU talking and tweeting. Game recognizes game. Lord is the foil. He says wild stuff; @CNN turns that into MULTIPLE segments on their shows throughout the day."

"Sorry, I'm not biting," he said. "I see the Jeffrey Lord ruse. I won't be a willing participant in a nutty social media debate. Nor should you."

Read the full series of tweets, embedded below: