Playbook PM: Lemon’s apology leaves bitter style for some at CNN
DON LEMON spoke up on a CNN name this morning with members of the newsroom and apologized for his sexist remarks yesterday that stirred controversy inside the newsroom and sparked a backlash within the media and political world.
“I’m sorry that I offended — not if I offended, that I offended — a complete lot of individuals on this firm,” Lemon stated on the decision, in keeping with audio obtained by Playbook. (The NY Put up additionally reported some particulars of the apology this morning.)
On yesterday’s “CNN This Morning,” Lemon prompt to co-hosts POPPY HARLOW and KAITLAN COLLINS that GOP presidential contender NIKKI HALEY wasn’t “in her prime” at age 51. “A lady is taken into account to be of their prime in [their] 20s and 30s and perhaps 40s,” he stated.
This morning, Lemon stated his remark “got here out unsuitable” and sought to make clear that the purpose he was attempting to make was that “nobody’s age — not a person, not a lady’s — ought to outline their ambition or their potential for fulfillment at something.” He stated he “realized afterward that it didn’t make sense and didn’t land accurately.”
“Within the historical past of this group I’m undecided anybody has executed this, and I’m doing it as a result of I would like you to find out about me, for these of you who don’t know: I imagine that ladies of any age — folks of any age, however principally girls of any age — can do no matter they set their minds to.”
“The folks I’m closest to on this group are girls. The folks I search counsel from first on this group are girls. The individual I’m closest to on the planet is my mom, a lady,” Lemon stated.
He went on to name-check a few of his CNN colleagues with whom he speaks to usually, together with DANA BASH, ERIN BURNETT, MARIA SPINELLA and “the Poppy and Kaitlans of the world, who run circles round males, and me, each day.”
Towards the tip of his feedback on the decision this morning, Lemon stated he would “proceed to be who I’m, to speak about points that I believe have an effect on us — girls, folks of colour, members of the LGBT neighborhood, the underserved neighborhood — that’s a part of my mission.” However, he stated “once I make a mistake, I personal it. And I personal this one as nicely.”
CNN CEO CHRIS LICHT opened the decision saying that he was “disenchanted” within the remarks, calling them “upsetting, unacceptable and unfair.” “I wish to say I’ve heard from lots of people within the group each straight and not directly about how these feedback have affected you, and I would like you to listen to straight from me that I hear you,” Licht stated. After Lemon’s apology, Licht stated: “I stay up for the continued dialog on this with you and the employees.”
However Lemon’s mea culpa on the decision didn’t fulfill everybody who heard it.
Individuals who had been on the decision stated that whereas Lemon apologized, he appeared at occasions to be justifying his unique remark and taking credit score for apologizing.
One individual described Lemon’s apology as “tone deaf” and stated some employees stay “livid” over the episode and need administration to challenge an announcement responding to the state of affairs.
FETTERMAN UPDATE — NBC’s Dasha Burns: “A senior aide to Senator [JOHN] FETTERMAN tells me he’ll possible be in inpatient take care of medical despair for ‘just a few weeks.’ … A senior aide says it’s been troublesome to differentiate the stroke from the despair – saying it’s onerous to inform at occasions if Fetterman is ‘not listening to you, or is he type of crippled by his despair and social anxiousness.’” Click through for a full thread
— CNN’s Manu Raju: “Fetterman will not resign his workplace due to this sickness, per supply. There have been quite a few examples of senators who’ve been sidelined over time for a for much longer time interval, and that is no totally different, the supply added.”
Associated learn: “What John Fetterman Ought to Know About Thomas Eagleton,” by Jeff Greenfield for POLITICO Journal
SCOTT FINDS AN EDITOR — NBC’s Sahil Kapur: “After going through assaults, Sen. RICK SCOTT edits his coverage plan on sunsetting legal guidelines after 5 years. It now exempts Social Safety and Medicare.” Click through for the side-by-side comparison
Good Friday afternoon. Thanks for studying Playbook PM. Programming notice: This article shall be off on Monday in observance of Presidents Day. However Playbook will nonetheless publish within the morning. Drop me a line: [email protected].
FUN AFTERNOON READ — “My Valentine’s Day Date With Bernie Sanders,” by N.Y. Magazine’s Bridget Learn: “The senator had no thought it was Valentine’s Day. ‘When is that? This weekend?’ BERNIE SANDERS requested once I greeted him for dinner on February 14 at Younger Chow, a Chinese language restaurant on Pennsylvania Avenue that he likes. No, I advised him, it’s Valentine’s Day at the moment, proper now, as this very meal is going down. He was grumpy. ‘Why is Valentine’s Day in the midst of the week?’”
CONGRESS
WILL ROMNEY RUN? — Sen. MITT ROMNEY nonetheless hasn’t decided about working for reelection, for these monitoring the Utah Republican’s pondering. “I’m type of conserving my thoughts open,” Romney advised AP’s Michelle Value and Mary Clare Jalonick. “There’s no specific hurry. I’m doing what I’d do if I’m working with staffing and assets, so it’s not like I’ve to make a proper announcement.”
Associated learn: “Key senators torn over retirement choices as get together leaders attempt to fortify 2024 standing,” by CNN’s Manu Raju and Edward-Isaac Dovere
ALL POLITICS
THE EARLY WHAT-IF WORRY — “Biden’s Trump-focused marketing campaign could possibly be dangerous if GOP shifts,” by AP’s Will Weissert: “President JOE BIDEN constructed his 2020 White Home run round guarantees to beat DONALD TRUMP ‘like a drum.’ As Biden gears up for an anticipated reelection marketing campaign, he insists he can do it once more. However what if Trump isn’t subsequent yr’s Republican nominee? Although the GOP main race is barely simply starting, a common election pitting Biden towards every other Republican may look very totally different from one towards Trump, with Democrats maybe seeing enthusiasm to cease Trump in any respect value evaporate.”
2024 JOSTLING — “Nikki Haley says the DeSantis ‘parental rights in training’ legislation in Florida doesn’t go ‘far sufficient,’” by Fox Information’ Paul Steinhauser in Exeter, N.H.
POLICY CORNER
FOR YOUR RADAR — “FBI says it has ‘contained’ cyber incident on bureau’s pc community,” by CNN’s Evan Perez and Sean Lyngaas: “FBI officers have labored to isolate the malicious cyber exercise, which two of the sources stated concerned the FBI New York Discipline Workplace – one of many bureau’s greatest and highest profile workplaces. The origin of the hacking incident remains to be being investigated, in keeping with one supply.”
INSIDE GARLAND’S DOJ — “Merrick Garland Raises the Bar for Dying Penalty,” by WSJ’s Sadie Gurman, Aruna Viswanatha and Corinne Ramey: “Greater than a yr after halting federal executions, Lawyer Basic MERRICK GARLAND is authorizing prosecutors to hunt the dying penalty in some brutal instances whereas withdrawing it in lots of others, drilling down on the circumstances surrounding even essentially the most heinous crimes earlier than making the ultimate name.”
BEYOND THE BELTWAY
THE LATEST IN MEMPHIS — “5 Memphis officers plead not responsible in dying of Tyre Nichols,” by AP’s Adrian Sainz
ON THE BORDER — “Texas Begins Arresting Migrant Girls After Courts Toss Circumstances Towards Males,” by WSJ’s Elizabeth Findell: “Although migrants arrested below this system, totally on misdemeanor trespassing costs, had been ceaselessly touring in mixed-gender teams, the Texas Division of Public Security has had a coverage of arresting solely males on the trespass costs and referring girls and youngsters to Border Patrol, in keeping with courtroom information. However since final fall, 24 girls in three counties have additionally been arrested and charged, in keeping with the Lubbock Non-public Defenders Workplace, an indigent-defense group answerable for appointing attorneys to migrants.”
GRIM READ — “In a Violent America Security Turns into a Gross sales Pitch,” by NYT’s Michael Corkery and Zackary Canepari: “Rising gun violence, punctuated by massacres just like the assault on the elementary faculty in Uvalde, Texas final yr and the taking pictures on Michigan State College’s campus this week, is fueling not solely the talk over gun management but in addition a greater than $3 billion business of corporations working to guard kids or staff towards mass homicide.”
COMMON CENSUS — “Cities interesting 2020 census rely garner solely small wins,” by AP’s Mike Schneider
AMERICA AND THE WORLD
MORE BALLOON BUSINESS — “Trump-Period Officers Had been Conscious of Suspected Balloons in U.S. Airspace,” by WSJ’s Vivian Salama: “A small circle of intelligence officers on the Pentagon in the course of the Trump administration monitored a sequence of mysterious objects — now suspected to be balloons — however the incidents had been by no means reported to the White Home as a result of it wasn’t clear what they had been, former U.S. officers stated.”
YELLEN ABROAD — “Janet Yellen to go to India for G-20 finance conferences,” by AP’s Fatima Hussein: Treasury Secretary JANETYELLEN’s “schedule of occasions will start on Feb. 23, the place she plans to provide a speech concerning the state of the economic system because the U.S. and its allies help Ukraine in defending itself towards the invasion, in keeping with the Treasury Division.”
HMM — “Fb ran advertisements in Moldova for oligarch sanctioned by U.S.,” by AP’s David Klepper and Stephen McGrath: “The advertisements that includes politician and convicted fraudster ILAN SHOR had been in the end eliminated by Fb however not earlier than they had been seen hundreds of thousands of occasions in Moldova, a small nation of about 2.6 million sandwiched between Romania and war-torn Ukraine.”
WAR IN UKRAINE
HEADS UP — “U.S. Watchdogs Wish to Deploy Workers to Ukraine Conflict Zone to Monitor Arms, Support Up Shut,” by WSJ’s Warren P. Strobel and Gordon Lubold: “Inspectors common from the Pentagon, State Division and the U.S. Company for Worldwide Improvement stated in a joint interview with The Wall Avenue Journal that, so far, they’ve been in a position to conduct vital oversight duties remotely utilizing personnel primarily based in Washington, Poland and Germany. However following a visit by the trio to Kyiv in late January, they stated they’d press to place among the 177 auditors and investigators scrutinizing Ukraine assist on the bottom in Ukraine.”
ASKING FOR AID — “Zelenskyy pushes for quick assist to keep away from extra Ukraine deaths,” by AP’s Karl Ritter in Munich: “In his plea for extra Western weapons, [Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR] ZELENSKYY in contrast Ukraine’s wrestle towards the Russian invasion to the biblical battle between DAVID and GOLIATH, saying his nation had David’s braveness however wanted assist in getting the sling.”
Associated reads: “Macron: Russia is ‘mafia state’ for working with Wagner group,” by Jamie Dettmer and Alex Ward … “Mitch McConnell harassed his get together backs a robust trans-Atlantic relationship and would proceed to assist Ukraine in its warfare towards Russia,” by Anthony Adragna for Congress Minutes
SPY VS. SPY — “In wake of Ukraine warfare, U.S. and allies are looking down Russian spies,” by WaPo’s Greg Miller, Souad Mekhennet, Emily Rauhala and Shane Harris
THE STORY OF DAVID … “How a Tiny NATO Nation Tackled a Huge Drawback: Arming Ukraine,” by NYT’s Lara Jakes in Luxembourg
… AND GOLIATH: “South Africa and Russia Are Previous Buddies. A Conflict Isn’t Going to Change That,” by NYT’s John Eligon in Johannesburg
PLAYBOOKERS
OUT AND ABOUT — Robert Raben and Anthony Coley hosted a farewell get together for Alondra Nelson, who’s leaving the White Home OSTP to return to the Institute for Superior Research, at their Capitol Hill house final night time, the place D.C. chef Sidra Forman supplied meals. SPOTTED: HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, outgoing CEA Chair Cecilia Rouse, Ashish Jha, Damon Hewitt, CFPB Director Rohit Chopra, Chiraag Bains, Vinay Reddy, Kevin Younger, Salman Ahmed, Narda Jones and Gabe Amo.
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