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News anchor Don Lemon is out at CNN, he and the cable network announced Monday.

“Don will forever be a part of the CNN family, and we thank him for his contributions over the past 17 years,” the news outlet 

. “We wish him well and will be cheering him on in his future endeavors.”

, Lemon said his agent told him Monday morning that he had been terminated by CNN.

“I am stunned. After 17 years at CNN, I would have thought that someone in management would have had the decency to tell me directly,” Lemon said.

“At no time was I ever given any indication that I would not be able to continue to do the work I have loved at the network. It is clear that there are some larger issues at play.”

 about his firing “inaccurate” and said he was given a chance to meet with management. 

The news of Lemon's departure came shortly after an announcement by Fox News that 

 with popular and controversial host Tucker Carlson.

 he made on CNN about Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley.

 in February, Lemon said the 51-year-old Haley wasn't “in her prime” and suggested a woman is “considered to be in her prime in her 20s and 30s and maybe 40s.”

, saying at an editorial meeting with CNN colleagues that he understood “why people found it completely misguided.”

During the Trump administration, the then-evening anchor was 

seen as an outspoken critic of the president

 in 2021 that he believed Trump was often angered by him because of his identity and his approach to his work.

“I am a gay Black man who has a platform and who speaks truth to power. I'm not a Democrat nor a Republican. And I think initially, Donald Trump thought through his interviews with me that he could try to co-opt me, and he didn't,” Lemon said.

“And when I think he realized that he wasn't going to be able to co-opt me over on his side to — you know, not to give him a tough interview or to hold him accountable, I think his play was to demonize me because that played with his base,” he added.

After Chris Licht became CNN's CEO in 2022, Lemon left his prime-time slot at the network and joined daytime anchor Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins, chief White House correspondent, to helm a new show, 

panel discussion with the news outlet Semafor

, Licht described Lemon as a “lightning rod.”

“Because he really came to prominence during an era where that was celebrated and encouraged in prime time. That was CNN's prime time. That is not CNN's prime time," anymore, Licht said.

“The world has moved on from that. Don has moved on from that,” Licht continued. “Don was the first one to go, ‘I'm tired of having to set my hair on fire every night. I want to try something new.’”

Business and Economic News

Media

Joe Hernandez

Author

Lemon, a 17-year veteran of the cable network, said he was “stunned” when his agent told him Monday morning that he had been terminated.  

CNN announces it's parted ways with news anchor Don Lemon

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