Former CNN anchor Don Lemon is publicly revisiting the circumstances of his April 2023 firing, telling a Harvard Kennedy School audience that the network pushed him out as part of a deliberate shift to the right, while separately raising the possibility of a presidential run.
Lemon shared video of his Harvard Kennedy School appearance with followers on Facebook on Oct. 7, describing the event as a discussion of “my arrest, CNN’s shift to the right and Trump’s impact on the press,” alongside a C-SPAN moderator.
In the clip, Lemon said Warner Bros. Discovery’s top stockholder had told CNBC before the company took over CNN that the network needed to be more like Fox News. “And I knew that they wanted to get rid of me when, before they took over because, you know, I know people,” Lemon told the moderator.
Lemon went further, describing what he said was happening internally at the network. “Internally, what they were saying to us was they wanted to make room for MAGA because Donald Trump was a huge figure, and they thought by moving to the Right, they would get conservative viewers,” he said.
He argued that strategy only works if a network openly declares itself entertainment rather than news. “It never works unless you’re going to become Fox [News], and you’re going to say in legal documents that you’re ‘entertainment.’ You should not be seen as a legitimate news organization,” he said. He added: “If you continually carry water for one ideological [position], either Left or Right, that’s the only way it’s going to work, [to call it entertainment and not news].”
Lemon worked as a CNN anchor until April 2023, when he was dismissed amid Paramount’s takeover of CNN parent Warner Bros. Discovery. He has previously drawn attention for an on-air exchange with Vivek Ramaswamy and for an arrest during a protest march through a Minnesota church.
Talk of a White House bid
Since leaving CNN, Lemon has started his own show and become an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump. He has recently said he believes there is a “65, 70%” chance he will launch a presidential campaign, despite having no political experience.
“I actually think I would be a really good president of the United States,” Lemon said on the “Can’t be Censored” podcast. He said that if he ran, he would want the campaign to be funded by voters rather than large donors. “For the people to want me. What it would take is if I ran a political campaign, a presidential campaign, I would like to run it, and I don’t know if this is realistic or not, without having to beg for money. I would like it to be a voter-citizen-driven campaign for as much as it can be,” he said. “Maybe at some point I might have to take a donation. I would rather not do that.”
Lemon had earlier said he lacked political ambitions but was reconsidering after people encouraged him to run.
Reaction from former colleagues, reported by the New York Post, was mixed. One former CNN colleague said: “Don does very much want to have influence and feel his contributions matter. Would seem other ways make more sense because running is merely raising money, which is f—ing miserable, and you can’t get anywhere.” That person added: “I think political office is probably appealing to him. I think a presidential run is obviously not serious, but he could engage in it as a way to launchpad into another office.”
A second staffer took the prospect more seriously, telling Fox News Digital that Lemon has stayed “relevant” since his firing and noting the unusually open Democratic nomination field: “It’s the most open nomination process in 30+ years for the Dems, I think you gotta take it seriously.”
