After parting ways with CNN in April, Don Lemon opened up about his dismissal in an interview — his first since leaving the news network.

1.

Lemon shocked many after he announced his departure from CNN after over a decade as one of the network’s most headline-making anchors. In the statement, the 57-year-old didn’t hold back and let his followers know his firing was as much a surprise to him as it was to his fans, Politico reported.

“I was informed this morning by my agent that I have been terminated. I am stunned,” he started the statement, adding he was “stunned” management didn’t have the “decency to tell me directly.”

2.

CNN responded to Lemon’s statement, calling it “inaccurate,” Hollywood Life reported. They added the journalist “was offered an opportunity to meet with management but instead released a statement on Twitter.”

3.

Regardless, Lemon stands by his previous statement, and he went more in-depth as to why he believes he was let go while talking to ABC 24 Memphis.

“I have a responsibility, not only as a journalist but as an American to tell the truth and to abide by the promises of the Constitution, because the Constitution says, ‘a more perfect union,’ not a perfect one. I’m not a perfect person. No one is,” he said. “In order to fulfill the promise of the Constitution, we have to stand up for what is right. We have to stand up for the truth.”

4.

He also suggested he had issues with some of the guests featured on the network.

“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 biding by the Constitution, I think that would be a dereliction of journalistic duty to do those sort of things,” he explained. “That is what has gotten me to this point, and that is what is going to carry me forward.”

5.

Moving forward, Lemon said he plans to let his commitment to the truth drive him forward, TV Line reported.

“To know that I am doing the right thing, to know 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 — ‘freedom of speech, freedom of expression and freedom of the press,'” he said.

6.

Just weeks after his CNN termination, Variety shared an article in which more than 12 of Lemon’s former colleagues described his pattern of allegedly misogynistic, inappropriate and “diva-like” behavior at the network. His behavior while working for CNN was called “inappropriate,” and one senior executive said the anchor was always quick to defy instruction from higher-ups.

7.

Still, Lemon does not regret his time at CNN.

“I live my life with no regrets, and whatever I did, I did, and I owned,” he told Extra. “I don’t look back and don’t want to change things in the past… Onward.”

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