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Leonard Greene is a columnist for the New York Daily News.
Don Lemon is back on the air. He’s opening his mouth to change his feet.
The CNN anchor shamelessly stuck his foot in his mouth when he recently said that newly announced Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley — a 51-year-old woman — was already past her prime.
Then he put his other foot in his mouth when he told his viewers and his female co-hosts to “Google” it.
Lemon’s ageism and misogyny were a horribly bungled response to Haley’s senseless suggestion that politicians above the age of 75 take mental competency tests, an obvious swipe at the 80-year-old president of the United States.
“This whole talk about age makes me uncomfortable,” Lemon said on CNN. “I think it’s the wrong road to go down. She says people, you know, politicians or something are not in their prime. Nikki Haley isn’t in her prime, sorry. A woman is considered to be in their prime in their 20s and 30s and maybe 40s.”
Then Lemon doubled down.
“If you Google ‘when is a woman in her prime,’ it’ll say 20s, 30s and 40s.,” Lemon said. “Don’t shoot the messenger. I’m just saying Google what the facts are.”
Lemon, 56, was taken off the air for a couple of days, and rightly so. Any man stupid enough to even tackle this topic in public deserves a little time off.
But Lemon needs to be taken to task for committing what may be an even bigger offense — giving conservatives something to be right about.
Haley, it turns out, probably couldn’t be happier. She couldn’t buy this kind of coverage with a mainstream media discount card.
Haley, a former United Nations ambassador and South Carolina governor, cracked back on Lemon, tweeting a video of his remarks to her 900,000 followers.
“Liberals can’t stand the idea of having competency tests for older politicians to make sure they can do the job,” Haley tweeted along with the video. “BTW it’s always the liberals who are the most sexist.”
Unfortunately, this was not the first time that Lemon said something controversial about women on “CNN This Morning,” which has only been on the air since November.
A month after the show’s debut, Lemon said the U.S. men’s national soccer team should be paid more than the U.S. women even though the women have had far greater international success.
Despite pushback from the same frustrated co-hosts, Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins, Lemon continued to push his point.
“But the men’s team makes more money,” he said. “If they make more money, then they should get more money. The men’s team makes more money because people are more interested in the men.”
Lemon took what amounted to an extended holiday weekend, and returned last week to the “CNN This Morning” anchor desk, where he said nothing about how he insulted his colleagues and every viewer with two X chromosomes.
But first, he had to sit through a round of “training,” which he followed with a tweeted apology.
“I appreciate the opportunity to be back on @CNNThisMorning today,” he wrote. “To my network, my colleagues and our incredible audience — I’m sorry. I’ve heard you, I’m learning from you, and I’m committed to doing better.”
He couldn’t do any worse.
