CNN's Lemon apologizes for comments about Haley
While Don Lemon was conspicuously absent from “CNN This Morning” Friday — just 24 hours after he controversially said that presidential candidate Nikki Haley was no longer “in her prime” at age 51 — the embattled anchor reportedly jumped onto a staff call with colleagues to apologize for his sexist on-air comments and to essentially say that his best friends are women.
TMZ said Lemon's apology “did not go over well,” citing sources with direct knowledge of Friday's staff call. During his reported 90 seconds on the call, Lemon said he didn't mean what he said and insisted that he's going to continue to fight discrimination against women, TMZ said.
“I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt anyone. I did not mean to offend anyone,” Lemon said on the call, the Daily Beast reported. “What I said came out wrong and I wish I hadn't said it. I believe women of any age can do anything they set their minds to. The people I am closest to in this organization are women.”
Lemon landed in hot water Thursday while discussing Haley's presidential campaign announcement and her call for “mandatory mental competency tests for politicians over 75 years old,” USA Today reported. In launching her bid for the Republican nomination at a rally in Charleston, South Carolina, Haley was referencing President Joe Biden being 80 and former President Donald Trump, another GOP challenger, being 76.
Speaking with co-hosts Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins, the 56-yearold Lemon said Haley's “talk about age” made him uncomfortable, explaining that her comments about politicians not being “in their prime” was the “wrong road” to go down. “Nikki Haley is not in her prime, sorry,” Lemon said. “A woman is considered to be in her prime in her 20s, 30s and maybe her 40s.”
When Harlow asked Lemon to clarify what he meant by a woman's “prime” — whether he was referring to a woman being in her “prime for childbearing” or being in her “prime for being president” — Lemon responded: “If you Google `when is a woman in her prime,' it'll say 20s, 30s and 40s. … I'm not saying I agree with that so I think she has to be careful about saying that (politicians aren't in their prime).”