Don Lemon Says He Feels Vindicated After CNN Tumult, Teases Next Career Move
18.08.2023 - 18:59
/ deadline.com
Don Lemon made his first extended comments since he was fired from CNN, telling podcast host Kara Swisher that he feels “vindicated” following the exit of CNN leadership after his departure.
Lemon was let go from the network’s morning show in April. But in June, CNN boss Chris Licht himself was shown the door, following the publication of an embarrassing profile in The Atlantic and a staff backlash over the way that a town hall with former President Donald Trump was handled.
“Read the story, and you speak to the people who are there, and I think people get what happened,” Lemon told Swisher. “All you have to do is read The Atlantic story. Read the subsequent stories that came out, and you know, how it played out, and they are gone now. So do I feel vindicated in that sense? yes, I do.”
Lemon also had words of praise for Licht’s predecessor, Jeff Zucker, who he said was “the best news executive who I have ever worked for” in his career.
In February, Lemon apologized to staffers and on Twitter amid a controversy over comments he made on the morning show, in which he suggested that presidential candidate Nikki Haley was not “in her prime,” before talking about when women are considered to be in their prime.
Lemon returned to the air after several days. But he told Swisher that he was “never allowed to address the issue on the air. I wish that I could but I was never allowed to.” He also suggested that Zucker would have handled the situation differently.
“He understood that when you are in those conversations, just as in your regular conversations that you have across the dinner table or in a restaurant, you don’t always say things perfectly. You’re not going to say that on television. He was very supportive of us, and