CNN is under fire for a segment on “CNN Tonight with Don Lemon” in which rapper Kanye West was referred to as “the token negro of the Trump administration.”

West is scheduled to meet with President Trump at the White House on Thursday to discuss a variety of topics including prison reform and how to prevent gang violence. A CNN segment on Tuesday night began with Lemon asking if Trump is simply “using Kanye as a prop to win over black voters before the midterms.”

CNN political commentator Bakari Sellers responded that his issue with the rapper is “quite simple.”

“Anti-intellectualism simply isn’t cool,” Sellers said. “Kanye West is what happens when Negros don’t read.”

Sellers’ remark prompted laughter from fellow panelist Tara Setmayer – also a CNN political commentator – who informed viewers that the derogatory remark is apparently a decades-old Chris Rock reference. CNN political commentator Scott Jennings – the only white panelist – appeared absolutely stunned at the comment and Lemon made a point to poke fun at the expression on his face.

“Black folks are about to trade Kanye West in the racial draft, OK. They’ve had it with him,” Setmayer said as the panel burst out laughing at West’s expense, again.

“This is not the Kanye West of 2004,” Setmayer said. “Now all of the sudden because he’s put on a MAGA hat and he’s an attention whore like the president, he’s all of the sudden the model spokesperson. He’s the token negro of the Trump administration.”

Setmayer went on to call the situation “ridiculous” and declare that “no one should be taking Kanye West seriously” because he “clearly has issues.”

CNN did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Fox News contributor Deroy Murdock said “these reprehensible, racist comments on CNN are typical of the Trump-hating Left” that exists in the mainstream media.

“Black Americans who think for ourselves are mocked and degraded with words we last saw under Jim Crow. If President Trump had no black supporters, they would call his circle ‘lily white,’” Murdock said. “Now, one of America’s most prominent black entertainers praises and visits the president, and he is trivialized as a ‘token’ who ‘doesn’t read.’”

more at: foxnews.com

.@Bakari_Sellers: “My issue with Kanye West is quite simple — is that anti-intellectualism simply isn’t cool.” https://t.co/FVeCRODqXl pic.twitter.com/rhH5nWSubZ

— CNN Tonight (@CNNTonight) October 10, 2018