If you thought CNN anchor Don Lemon would go quietly in the night, some who know him say you might want to think again.
Lemon, who was one of the CNN morning show hosts, previously came under fire a little over two months after he apologized for on-air comments about Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley being past her prime.
The move quickly turned nasty. While CNN chairman and CEO Chris Licht announced, after Lemon had co-hosted the show Monday, that they had “parted ways,” Lemon characterized it as a firing and said it was a surprise to him.
“After 17 years at CNN I would have thought someone in management would have the decency to tell me directly,” Lemon said. CNN said that Lemon was given the opportunity to meet with management but released a statement on Twitter instead.
Lemon’s firing from CNN is allegedly linked to a tense on-air exchange he had last week with Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on “CNN This Morning.”
During their heated spat, Lemon claimed Ramaswamy’s controversial comments about the freedoms of Black Americans in the post-Civil War era were insulting.
As TheWrap reports, Lemon took issue with Ramaswamy saying the NRA helped freed slaves after the civil war earn Second Amendment freedoms.
“The NRA did not play a big role in that. That is a lie,” Lemon said. “That’s a lie. The NRA did not play a big role in that.”
“This is just historical fact, but Don,” Ramaswamy said before Lemon cut him off, according to The Wrap.
“That is not historical fact. Just because you say it’s historical fact does not make it historical fact,” Lemon said.
“The part that I find insulting,” Ramaswamy said, “is when you say today Black Americans don’t have those rights after we have gone through civil rights revolution in this country.”
“The fact that I find insulting is that you are sitting here telling an African American about the rights and what you find insulting about the way I live, the skin I live in every day, and I know the freedoms that Black and white — that Black people don’t have in this country and that Black people do have.”
Lemon went on to say… “I’m not saying you shouldn’t express your views. But that you’re sitting here, whatever ethnicity you are, splaining to me what it’s like to be Black in America. I’m sorry”
“Whatever ethnicity I am? I’ll tell you what ethnicity I am, I’m an Indian American,” Ramaswamy said. “I’m proud of it. But I think we should have this debate, Black, white doesn’t matter.”
“I think we should have this debate,” Lemon said. “But I think you should do it in an honest way.”
According to CNN insiders, the conversation “left several CNN leaders exasperated.” CNN’s morning show, with Don at the helm, were beginning to cost CNN advertising sales and some potential guests were becoming reluctant to appear on “CNN This Morning,” said a CNN staff member familiar with the decision to oust Lemon but not authorized to speak publicly.
Ramaswamy spoke to Fox News Digital Monday and noted that “It’s clear” his conversation with Lemon “played in role” in CNN’s “sound decision” to fire the longtime news anchor, according to Fox News.
“I think that any network that wants to foster open debate should embrace that principle by not restricting what someone can say or saying what someone can say is restricted based on their skin color. And I think they made the right decision here,” Ramaswamy said.
The network initially tweeted that Lemon and the network “parted ways,” and wrote: “Don will forever be a part of the CNN family, and we thank him for his contributions over the past 17 years. We wish him well and will be cheering him on in his future endeavors.”
Lemon used to host the prime-time “Don Lemon Tonight” but moved when the network launched “CNN This Morning” last November, just before the U.S. midterm elections, as one of the first major programming moves under Licht.
He attracted negative attention last fall by saying that the U.S. men’s soccer team should be paid more than the women’s team, saying that the men were “more interesting to watch.”