Don Lemon has ‘day off’
Nikki Haley comments still stinging
Don Lemon had the “day off” from CNN on Monday in the wake of his comments about Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, the second straight broadcast he missed following his “gaffe.”
“This is the last thing that CNN needed,” Tobe Berkovitz, a Boston University associate professor of Advertising emeritus, told the Herald on Monday.
“Behind the scenes (at CNN), they are just pulling their hair out — if they have any hair left, the way things have been going there,” Berkovitz later added.
The Lemon controversy exploded on Thursday when the “CNN This Morning” host said Haley, a 51-yearold woman, was not “in her prime.”
The hosts were talking about the ages of politicians after Haley called for mental competency tests for politicians over 75. President Biden is 80, and former President Donald Trump is 76.
A woman is considered in her prime “in her 20s, 30s and maybe 40s,” Lemon said during the segment.
“Don’t shoot the messenger, I’m just saying what the facts are. Google it,” Lemon added when co-host Poppy Harlow pushed back at him. “Everybody at home: When is a woman in her prime? It says 20s, 30s and 40s.”
Harlow during Monday’s Presidents Day show said, “Don has the day off.”
Lemon tweeted on Thursday after he made the remarks, “The reference I made to a woman’s ‘prime’ this morning was inartful and irrelevant, as colleagues and loved ones have pointed out, and I regret it. A woman’s age doesn’t define her either personally or professionally. I have countless women in my life who prove that every day.”
Lemon had been switched from CNN primetime to the morning, and it has been “another failed venture by CNN,” Berkovitz said.
“The ratings are terrible, he’s been fighting with cohosts, and now he makes this gaffe,” Berkovitz said. “It has totally fallen flat.”