'The Truth Is Under Daily Assault': CNN's Don Lemon Warns Trump is Creating an 'Extreme Crisis'

CNN's Don Lemon on Wednesday joined the chorus of journalists denouncing President Donald Trump's recent claims his campaign was infiltrated by spies as unfounded lied — but he also gave a dire diagnosis of what Trump's lying means for the United States.

"Our county is in the middle of an extreme crisis, a crisis that threatens our foundation," he said. "A crisis that threatens the values we all hold dear. A crisis created to blind us to the truth, indeed, to destroy the very existence of a sheer truth in this country."

He continued: "The president of the United States is lying to us. Over and over and over and over again. We've all seen it with our very own eyes, and we've heard it with our own ears. He relies on our airwaves to play the lies to you. And he uses the airwaves of other networks to amplify those lies and pile more and more upon them. He uses Twitter to recklessly tweet them out to you, to all of us, telegraphing his every thought, including to those who mean this country harm, undermining our nation's traditions and norms in real time."

Lemon said Trump's recent attacks on the Justice Department may be the "biggest lie of all."

"Repeatedly, and with no facts to back him up, making the outrageous claim that the so-called deep state spied on his campaign," he said.

Lemon noted that Trump's own argument is undercut by former CIA Director James Clapper, who the president cited as evidence, as well as by his own secretary of state.

Watch the full clip below: