Don Lemon defends CNN tenure: 'I am doing the right thing'

In his first formal interview since his firing from CNN on April 24 and some red-carpet remarks to “Extra” two days later, former anchor Don Lemon defended his work across 17 years at the cable news network and reassured he is doing fine.

“I’m not worried at all,” Lemon, 57, told ABC’s Memphis, Tennessee, TV affiliate WATN in an interview posted Friday, after he had served as keynote speaker at the Memphis chapter of the NAACP’s annual Freedom Fund gala on June 17. “People are concerned about me and more worried about me than I am about myself. I’m fine. Someone is looking out for me,” he added metaphorically.

Lemon, who keeps a weekend home in Sag Harbor with his fiance, Tim Malone, had been fired following controversy over what many called a misogynistic remark about Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley in February, and a Variety report on April 5 detailing a history of poor behavior, including verbal abuse toward women. Lemon tweeted afterward that the firing had come without warning, which CNN subsequently contradicted.

Lemon in general terms defended his CNN tenure, telling the Memphis station, “I don't believe in platforming liars and bigots and insurrectionists and election deniers and putting them on the same footing as people who are telling the truth, people who are fighting for what's right, people who are abiding by the Constitution. I think that would be a dereliction of journalistic duty to do those sorts of things. That is what has gotten me to this point, and that is what is going to carry me forward.”

He said he was comforted by the knowledge “that I am doing the right thing, that I am standing up and abiding by the Constitution, which my profession demands that I do because we are listed in the First Amendment of the Constitution,” which establishes freedom of speech and of the press, among other rights.

As for his future, Lemon reiterated what he had told “Extra,” saying, “I'm not going to force anything. I'm not going to let other people's timeline influence me. I know people say, 'I miss you on television. What is your next move?' I'm figuring that out. I don't have to be in a rush. I think sometimes people rush to make decisions and they end up making the wrong decisions.”