Don Lemon: CNN Fired Me for Refusing to Give Airtime to ‘Liars and Bigots’

Two months soon after he was fired from CNN, Don Lemon hinted that the community permit him go simply because he wasn’t in fascinated in “platforming liars” on his present.

“I have a duty — not only as a journalist, but as an American — to inform the truth and to abide by the promises of the Constitution,” the reporter, 57, stated on Saturday, June 24, all through his initially sit-down job interview because his CNN exit. “Because the Structure states ‘a extra perfect union’ — not ‘a ideal union.’ I’m not a best person. No a single is. In get to fulfill the assure of the Constitution, we have to stand up for what is correct. We have to stand up for the real truth.”

Lemon didn’t point out his previous employer by identify in the interview with ABC’s Memphis affiliate, but he hinted that he and his bosses didn’t see eye-to-eye about who ought to be featured on the community.

“I really do not believe in platforming liars and bigots and, you know, insurrectionists and election deniers and placing them on the identical footing as persons who are telling the truth, people who are preventing for what is suitable, people today who are abiding by the Constitution,” Lemon continued. “I consider that would be a dereliction of journalistic duty to do these sorts of things. That is what has gotten me to this place and that is what is heading to carry me ahead.”

He went on to say that he does not know what’s next for him occupation-intelligent but is very pleased to have held correct to his private beliefs. “To know that I am undertaking the right matter, that I am standing up and abiding by the Structure, which my occupation calls for that I do since we are listed in the 1st Modification of the Constitution — which is liberty of speech, independence of expression and flexibility of the press,” Lemon stated. “I’m just being me and I’m currently being genuine.”

Lemon was fired from his longtime job at CNN on April 24. In a assertion shared by means of Twitter, he claimed that he discovered the information by way of his agent fairly than any person at the network.

“I am shocked. Following 17 several years at CNN I would have assumed that another person in management would have had the decency to notify me instantly. At no time was I ever provided any indication that I would not be equipped to keep on to do the function I have liked at the network,” he wrote. “It is clear that there are some much larger concerns at engage in. With that claimed, I want to thank my colleagues and the lots of teams I have worked with for an remarkable operate. They are the most gifted journalists in the organization, and I desire them all the best.”

CNN, even so, disputed Lemon’s account of his firing in a assertion shared through the formal Twitter account for the network’s interaction group. “Don Lemon’s statement about this morning’s functions is inaccurate,” read the assertion. “He was supplied an possibility to satisfy with management but as an alternative produced a assertion on Twitter.”

Lemon’s departure arrived right after a collection of controversial remarks he built on CNN This Early morning, which he cohosted with Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins (both equally of whom are nonetheless on the clearly show). In February, he was briefly taken off the air pursuing a sexist remark about former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley. “Nikki Haley isn’t in her prime, sorry,” he reported while discussing Haley’s suggestion that politicians around age 75 must be issue to psychological competency tests. “When a girl is regarded as to be in her primary — in her 20s, 30s and possibly her 40s.”

He apologized for his responses through Twitter soon just after the broadcast, crafting: “The reference I made to a woman’s ‘prime’ this morning was inartful and irrelevant, as colleagues and liked ones have pointed out, and I regret it. A woman’s age does not define her either personally or skillfully. I have plenty of gals in my existence who demonstrate that each working day.”

Two months afterwards, Lemon found himself in very hot h2o all over again immediately after a clash with Republican presidential applicant Vivek Ramaswamy. In the course of a heated a discussion more than the Civil War and the Next Modification, Lemon advised Ramaswamy, 37, that his arguments about Black Us citizens were being “insulting” and mistaken.

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Times later on, The New York Occasions noted that the trade remaining CNN increased-ups “exasperated” and performed a position in Lemon’s departure from the community.