According to reports, female CNN employees have given the network an ultimatum, threatening to quit if host Don Lemon is not gone for good.
Lemon has taken a significant leave of absence from his position as co-host of CNN “This Morning” after making contentious comments about Nikki Haley last Thursday that said she was past her prime.
“People are hurt by his actions and are not going to let this go,” a CNN insider told the DailyMail. “It is like every woman over 50 in America has taken this as a personal insult. The female staffers at CNN definitely have. He needs to make his vacation a permanent one.”
The DailyMail reported that other women with the network are fuming. As many expressed they want Lemon’s vacation to become permanent.
“Furious female staffers at CNN have threatened to quit if Don Lemon stays on-air following his sexist comments last week that Nikki Haley and women in their 40s are ‘past their prime,” the outlet reported.
“The women of CNN are angry. He’s made it impossible to do their jobs. He’s an embarrassment to the network and needs to go,” another source who spoke to the Mail said.
“If Don doesn’t go, we will,” one woman offered the network an ultimatum reportedly stated.
CNN claimed any reporting Lemon is being forced out of a job is “patently false,” as the network denied Lemon is on his way out, as was reported Monday.
After Lemon resorted to relegating them to has-beens as he took on Haley’s assertion that many of the country’s current leaders are too old, many of CNN’s few loyal viewers are also heated, the Mail added.
As she announced her campaign last week, the former governor of South Carolina and current GOP presidential hopeful called for a new generation of leadership in Washington.
“Nikki Haley isn’t in her prime. Sorry. When a woman is considered to be in her prime — in her 20s and 30s and maybe 40s,” Lemon retorted.
Women, such as 51-year-old Haley, are over the hill, as he cited a Google search as proof.
But hours after he uttered the comments, Lemon apologized publicly:
“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,” he wrote in Twitter.
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.
— Don Lemon (@donlemon) February 16, 2023
The New York Post reported that Lemon also expressed remorse for the remarks during a company-wide call last Friday. But if the latest reporting is accurate, those apologies have seemingly fallen on deaf ears.
Just months after he was pulled from his primetime gig, the Mail reports that a movement is growing to force Lemon out of CNN altogether.
Lemon reportedly had friction with Collins and Harlow at the time he made his remarks regarding women and aging. The low-rated show “CNN This Morning” has been affected by the drama that is happening behind the scenes.
The show already reaches a limited audience and appears in jeopardy of sinking to a new low.
Sources: WesternJournal, The New York Post, Daily Mail
