The View’s Sunny Hostin defends ‘friend’ Don Lemon after CNN firing: ‘He loves women’

Lemon was ousted from CNN on Monday 24 April in a surprise turn of events

The View’s Sunny Hostin supported Don Lemon following his surprise firing from CNN.

On Monday (24 April), the longtime news anchor was ousted from the network. Although there was no explanation for CNN’s decision, it comes after a recent string of controversies and allegations of misogynistic behaviour lodged against him.

Follow along here for real-time updates on Don Lemon.

The following morning, Hostin and her fellow talk show hosts addressed the news on their Tuesday (25 April) morning broadcast.

Hostin began the conversation by admitting she was “stunned” by the announcement. She did, however, acknowledge that she was “biased” because of her 20-year friendship with Lemon.

“Our offices were directly across from each other for most of that time that I worked there,” she explained. “I don’t believe, in my experience with him, that he’s a misogynist. I think he loves women: he loves his mother, he loved his sister, he loves me, he loves Joy [Behar]...”

Hostin proceeded to express her anger towards people “who are comparing Tucker [Carlson’s] firing with Don’s firing”, calling it a “false equivalency”.

Word of Lemon’s firing came shortly after famous right-wing news host Carlson was axed by Fox News. The View hosts reacted joyously to the latter’s exit.

“Yes, Don said some things that were sexist and I think ageist. He apologised for them and received formal training,” Hostin said.

“He has been on the air for a long time, fighting bigotry, whereas Tucker’s been fomenting bigotry, so there’s a big difference here. And yes, he did say some dumb things,” Behar added.

Haines jumped in to add that she felt “the writing was on the wall when new management came”.

“In fact, a lot of people were surprised that Don would be staying and then they shifted him around, moved him into different places,” she said. “But I think in a way, this was coming down the pipe for a while.”

Goldberg stepped in to close the conversation, saying: “If you’re concerned somebody is a misogynist, why would you put them with two women to do a show? If you feel that concerned. So for me, it seemed odd when they gave him that show.

“I’ve known Don forever too, I didn’t work with him. We’re just friends.”