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The View

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The View is sounding off on the firing of Don Lemon after the CNN host was dropped from the network in a messy firing Monday (April 24). After Lemon claimed to be “stunned” by the news of his own dismissal, Sunny Hostin said she, too, was shocked he was let go.

Hostin, who is friends with Lemon, defended the disgraced anchor to the Hot Topics panel, pointing to her 20-year close relationship with Lemon and their past experience working together.

“I don’t believe, in my experience with him, that he’s a misogynist. I think he loves women,” she said. “He loves his mother, he loved his sister, he loves me, he loves Joy [Behar].”

Hostin continued, “I am stunned,” before saying, “Don said some things that were sexist and I think ageist. He apologized for them and received formal training, and he spoke to us about a lot of this.”

Behar chimed in, “He has been on the air for a long time fighting bigotry,” while admitting Lemon had said “some dumb things,” before noting, “I only know him personally. I don’t know what he does when he’s with his coworkers.”

But Hostin swooped in to defend Lemon again, saying, “Well I do, because I was his coworker.”

Whoopi Goldberg closed out the segment with her own defense of Lemon, who co-hosted CNN This Morning alongside Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins before his firing.

“If you’re concerned that somebody is a misogynist, why would you put them with two women to do a show if you feel that way?” she asked. “For me, it seemed odd when they gave him that show and I thought, well this seems a little strange but I’ve known Don forever, too. I didn’t work with him, we’re just friends.”

Lemon was formally axed from CNN yesterday in a memo released by network boss Chris Licht. Lemon issued his own statement claiming to be shocked by the news and alleging the network didn’t “directly” tell him he was fired. CNN refuted his claims, writing on Twitter later that day, “Don Lemon’s statement about this morning’s events is inaccurate. He was offered an opportunity to meet with management but instead released a statement on Twitter.”

The View airs weekdays at 11/10c on ABC.