Ellen DeGeneres Faces Backlash After Defending Kevin Hart During Interview | Don Lemon Criticizes Kevin Hart For Making Himself The Victim Instead Of LGBT Community

Ellen DeGeneres’ attempts to play peacemaker between the Film Academy and Kevin Hart has engendered a social media backlash.

Hart, who stepped down as Oscars host after the resurfacing of past homophobic tweets, taped an interview with DeGeneres on Thursday that was originally due to air on Monday, but the producers of Ellen deemed it newsworthy enough to shift it to Friday, with clips released on Thursday night.

In the clips, Hart says he is “evaluating” reprising his role as the 2019 Oscars host after DeGeneres called the Academy to vouch for him. “I called them, I said, ‘Kevin’s on, I have no idea if he wants to come back and host, but what are your thoughts?’ And they were like, ‘Oh my God, we want him to host! We feel like that maybe he misunderstood or it was handled wrong. Maybe we said the wrong thing, but we want him to host. Whatever we can do we would be thrilled. And he should host the Oscars.’”

DeGeneres went on to defend Hart against what he felt was a malicious social media campaign to derail his career and urged him to rethink his decision on stepping down as Oscars host. “As a gay person, I am sensitive to all of that. You’ve already expressed that it’s not being educated on the subject, not realizing how dangerous those words are, not realizing how many kids are killed for being gay or beaten up every day,” said DeGeneres.

She added: “You have grown, you have apologized, you are apologizing again right now. You’ve done it. Don’t let those people win — host the Oscars.”

The interview clips proved divisive on Twitter, with some feeling that DeGeneres was being tone-deaf and giving Hart a pass for his homophobic comments.

DeGeneres continued to stand by the interview, writing on Twitter, “In this conversation, @KevinHart4real was authentic and real, and I’m in his corner.” She also wrote that she believes in second chances.

She seemingly responded to the backlash in a follow-up tweet on Friday morning. “However you feel about this, the only positive way through it is to talk about it,” she wrote. “Thank you for being here, @kevinhart4real.”

See some of the backlash to Kevin Hart’s interview on Ellen, below.

CNN news anchor, Don Lemon also weighed in on the renewed controversy, opening up in a gripping segment on his CNN news show Friday night as a member of both the African-American and LGBT communities, and called for a deeper response from Kevin Hart.

Lemon addressed the spectacle of Hart’s appearance on Ellen DeGeneres’ talk show. “Someone like Kevin Hart, with one of the biggest megaphones in the entire world, he can be a leader … he can help change homophobia in the black community, something Kevin’s old twitter jokes addressed but in the wrong way,” Lemon said.

"Apologizing and moving on does not make the world a better place for people who are gay or people who are transgender, being an ally does," says CNN's @DonLemon, reacting to the Oscars' openness to Kevin Hart's return https://t.co/ITGU3Uj2ez pic.twitter.com/4u48sfBF0U

— CNN Tonight (@CNNTonight) January 5, 2019

He then referenced an old tweet from Hart about theoretically disciplining his son for playing with a dollhouse.

“That was a joke to Kevin. The truth is, that is a reality for many little boys in the United States … somewhere a black dad is beating his black son,” Lemon said, referencing a story about his friend and Hollywood creator Lee Daniels. In his series, Empire, Daniels scripted a real-life moment when his own father threw him into a garbage can as a little boy for wearing a pair of high heels.

“Those views of the LGBT people in the black community have consequences,” Lemon said, calling up stats from the American Center for Progress, like their report that 44% of homeless gay youth in America are black. “That’s huge. Remember, black people only make up 12 percent of the U.S. population. Among homeless transgender youth? 62% of them are black. Those kids were likely kicked out of their homes or had to run away because of who they are.”

The anchor surmised that he did not see “any meaningful outreach to the LGBT community. Nothing that you have spoken on,” he said addressing Hart directly. “For many in the gay community, especially in the black community, the Twitter apologies on ‘Ellen’ have fallen flat,” Lemon continued, noting reactions calling the talk show moment “insincere” and that Hart “somehow turns himself into a victim instead of acknowledging the real victims of violent and sometimes deadly homophobia.”