June 4, 2020

Ellen DeGeneres's Twitter Woes, Both Live and Deleted

READ TIME: 2 MIN.

On Sunday CNN anchor gave an impassioned plea to major celebrities to speak out in the George Floyd's protests, calling out Ellen DeGeneres, Oprah and Drake (amongst others) to stand up and be counted.

"Lemon said prominent Hollywood figures had been 'strangely silent' and revealed that a number of unnamed individuals had declined to appear on CNN to talk about the ongoing protests," .

"Where are you?" Lemon asked. "Why aren't you fighting for these young people? If you don't do it now, when are you going to do it? If you are a millionaire or a gazillionaire or a movie star or a politician and you don't step up now, when the hell are you going to do it?"

He then called out DeGeneres, Oprah and Drake, along with Tracee Ellis Ross, Tyler Perry, Anthony Anderson, Diddy, and Jane Fonda, who mostly have responded to Lemon over the week.

Ellen did so in a video she tweeted on Monday morning in which she tearfully confessed: "I haven't spoken directly because I don't know what to say," .

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"I am so sad, and I am so angry, and, I know I'm not going to say the right thing, and I know that there are gonna be a lot of people who are gonna be, in disagreement with what I say.

"But, I have a platform and I have a voice, and I have always stood for equality, I have always wanted to be a voice for people who felt like they didn't have a voice.

"Because I know what that feels like, and maybe you don't agree with how it's coming out, but you have to understand it, and then we can heal it," she added, while taking a number of pauses.

"I just... I'm just..., so sorry, that it's come to this. I really don't know what to say other than, this has gone on way, way, way too long. People have gotten away with murder, and that's what's happening."

And if DeGeneres was looking for sympathy, she should steer clear of Twitter.

This is the second time this week where Ellen's tweets had a backlash. Just days before she "deleted a tweet following significant backlash on social media,"