Don Lemon absent from ‘CNN This Morning’ after sexist Nikki Haley rant enraged Poppy Harlow
Don Lemon absent from ‘CNN This Morning’ after sexist Nikki Haley rant enraged Poppy Harlow
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February 17, 2023 8:11am
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Don Lemon was conspicuously absent from “CNN This Morning” on Friday just 24 hours after he put his foot in his mouth with a sexist comment about 51-year-old Nikki Haley being “not in her prime” — prompting co-host Poppy Harlow to walk off the set.
Friday morning’s awkward broadcast started with a short clip featuring Harlow — who is on location in Salt Lake City, where she is covering NBA All-Star weekend festivities — interviewing TNT’s star basketball commentators Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith.
The camera then panned to co-host Kaitlan Collins, who was seated next to Audie Cornish, the former National Public Radio journalist who was sitting in for the 56-year-old Lemon.
“Don has the day off,” Collins said at the top of the broadcast, failing to elaborate on Lemon’s absence — much less mentioning Thursday’s disastrous blowup — as she introduced Cornish.
“Poppy, as you can see, is in Utah for the NBA All-Star Game, so we’ll get to that and much more in a moment,” Collins tells viewers before she and Cornish tackled the top news stories of the morning.
