Here's The Real Reasons Don Lemon Can't Stand Nikki Haley

Don Lemon has thrown several barbs at former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. The crux of their beef started just after Haley announced her bid to become the presidential candidate for the Republican party. "America is not past its prime," she told potential supporters on February 15, 2023. "It's just that our politicians are past theirs," Haley said while also calling for a "mandatory mental competency test" for elderly politicians — as a reference to the advanced age of President Joe Biden. Apparently, those comments irked Lemon, as he addressed them on "CNN This Morning" the following day. "Nikki Haley is not in her prime, sorry. A woman is considered to be in her prime in her 20s, 30s, and maybe her 40s," Lemon said on February 16, 2023.

The former CNN news anchor faced immediate backlash for his sexist comments and later issued an apology on X, formerly Twitter. "The reference I made to a woman's 'prime' this morning was inartful and irrelevant ... I regret it," Lemon wrote on February 16, 2023. That tweet did not go unnoticed by Haley, who quote-tweeted the apology. "To be clear, I am NOT calling for competency tests for Sexist middle-aged CNN anchors," she wrote the same day.

Reportedly, Haley used Lemon's comments in an email to potential donors to drum up support for her campaign. Later, Lemon would fire back at the presidential hopeful after she made a serious gaffe during a campaign stop.

After Don Lemon's sexist comments about Nikki Haley, the news anchor was put on leave from CNN. According to an email sent by the network's chief executive, Chris Licht, Lemon was given "formal training" before he returned to air in February 2023. "I believe that women of any age ... can do whatever they set their minds to," Lemon reportedly said while apologizing to CNN staffers. He returned to air later that month, but the feud with Haley was not buried.

Haley came under fire on December 27, 2023, while during a Q&A, she was asked about the causes of the Civil War. The former governor delivered a lengthy response but omitted to mention slavery as a root cause of the historic war, instead focusing on "freedoms and what people could and couldn't do." Amid backlash, Haley attempted to clarify her comments. "I mean, of course, the Civil War was about slavery," she told a small crowd the following day.

Naturally, Lemon caught word of Haley's Civil War blunder and reignited their beef. "Nikki Haley wants grace for using a poor choice of words when ... she didn't offer me that same grace, immediately and very publicly took me to task," the news anchor tweeted on December 28, 2023. Afterward, Lemon explained why he would prefer to see Donald Trump re-elected over Haley.

A day after firing shots at Nikki Haley on X, Don Lemon did not mince words when discussing the presidential hopeful with TMZ, as he compared her to former president Donald Trump. "I think a Nikki Haley may be much more dangerous than a Donald Trump cause at least you know where Donald Trump stands on issues," he told the outlet on December 29, 2023. "No one knows what Nikki Haley will do," Lemon added.

Lemon was not the only one who was taking shots and had used Haley's comments about the Civil War as fodder. While addressing voters in Iowa in January, Trump took his Republican rival candidate to task. "They asked her about the Civil War ... She didn't use the word 'slavery,' which was interesting," Trump told the crowd, as reported by People. "I'd say slavery is sort of the obvious answer as opposed to about three paragraphs of bulls**t she just talked," Trump added.

Meanwhile, only weeks after her Civil War snafu, Haley made further puzzling comments surrounding race. Haley — whose parents immigrated from India — was asked about the possibility of race factoring into her not becoming the presidential candidate for the Republican party. "No, we're not a racist country, Brian. We've never been a racist country," she said while appearing on "Fox & Friends" on January 16, 2024. "I know I faced racism when I was growing up, but I can tell you that today is a lot better than it was then," she added.