Female CNN staff members have reportedly given the network an ultimatum, saying they will leave if host Don Lemon is not fired.
Lemon has taken an extended absence from his role as co-host of CNN This Morning after making controversial remarks last Thursday that suggested Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley was past her prime.
LEMON SQUEEZED: CNN’S DON LEMON BENCHED FROM MORNING SHOW
“People are hurt by his actions and are not going to let this go,” a CNN insider told the Daily Mail. “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.”
In a memo late Monday night, CNN CEO Chris Licht announced Lemon would undergo training and is set to return to his morning show duties on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, CNN This Morning co-host Poppy Harlow opened the show and confirmed that Lemon was expected back on air on Wednesday.
Yet a CNN insider noted that “there is not one person at CNN who thinks that he should remain on air. He knows how badly he screwed up, and he also knows that he cannot talk his way out of this one. His apology meant nothing.”
Lemon’s controversial comments came after Haley announced her candidacy and suggested there should be a mandatory competency test for politicians more than 75 years of age.
“This whole talk about age makes me uncomfortable,” Lemon said. “Nikki Haley isn’t in her prime, sorry. When a woman is considered to be in her prime [is] in her 20s, and 30s, and maybe 40s.”
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Lemon, 56, said it was “not according to” him and told his co-hosts and audience to “Google it.”
While Lemon later apologized, calling his comments “inartful and irrelevant,” he has not appeared on-air since.
