Don Lemon’s absence from his usual seat between co-hosts Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins on ‘CNN This Morning’ was notable today, given he was also absent on Friday. The excuse for Friday was that his day off was pre-scheduled.

Sara Sidner is filling in for Lemon. The timing of his days off is suspect because of what happened last Thursday. Don Lemon referred to Nikki Haley, a candidate in the Republican presidential primary, as past her prime. Lemon seemed to be responding to Haley’s suggestion that elected officials 75 and older should be required to take cognitive tests. He thought it was a good idea to toss in his opinion that Haley was past her prime. Nikki Haley is 51 years old. Don Lemon is 57.

Poppy Harlow piped up and pushed back when Lemon pronounced Haley as past her prime. She asked, “Prime for what?” Lemon defensively told her to not shoot the messenger and to Google it. How lame. He just kept digging in, instead of having the sense to realize he said something really stupid. Lemon deserved every bit of criticism he received after that bit of nonsense aired.

Lemon wanted to ding Haley as a conservative minority woman. Liberals take for granted that minorities will flock to the Democrat Party and when they think for themselves and choose Republican ideology, they don’t understand it. Haley handled it well by noting that “it’s always the liberals who are the most sexist.” True that.

Don Lemon was not on the air on Friday. He was spotted in Miami with his significant other enjoying some time off, reported to have been a pre-scheduled day off. Allegedly, Poppy Harlow angrily walked off the set after her exchange with Lemon. What was interesting to me was that the two women co-hosts didn’t bother to come to Haley’s defense when Lemon attacked her with such misogyny. Collins remained quiet and Harlow tried to be light-hearted in her pushback to Lemon’s idiocy. Liberal women don’t support conservative women, we know that. They expect support from all women, though, because that’s how it is.

CNN’s new Chairman and CEO Chris Licht called Lemon’s comments on Thursday’s show “unacceptable.” Lemon tweeted that he regretted his remark and later apologized during the staff call with Licht. When Licht took over, revamping the morning show was at the top of his to-do list. Lemon lost his primetime evening show and was brought in as a co-host for the morning show. Since the beginning, the chemistry between the three co-hosts hasn’t meshed. There are stories reported of tension and even of Kaitlan Collins crying after being berated by Lemon in front of staff. Does America really want to wake up with Don Lemon?

So, Lemon was nixed from doing the Monday morning edition of ‘CNN This Morning’. A CNN rep said he is taking a holiday break.

The Daily Beast first reported that Lemon would be absent in a change to the scheduled lineup for Monday’s show. While the publication reported that there are conversations about Lemon’s future, that was challenged by a source at the network, who suggested that it was his own decision. The Thursday incident, which drew widespread criticism, including from Haley, has led to Lemon being followed by paparazzi and was the subject of the front page of the New York Post. It also has only heightened the scrutiny on the co-hosts’ chemistry, viewed as a central feature to making any morning show work. Lemon hosted his nighttime show, heavier in analysis and opinion, from 2014 until last fall, when he exited for the morning show gig.

The revamped morning show has not been a rating hit. According to Nielson Media Research, FNC’s ‘Fox and Friends’ leads the competition, as it has for 22 consecutive years.

FNC’s signature morning franchise FOX & Friends continued to dominate the cable news’ wake-up program landscape. FOX & Friends (6-9 AM/ET) was the highest-rated morning show for the 22nd consecutive year, topping CNN and MSNBC combined in viewers and the younger demo with 1.4 million viewers and 232,000 in the A25-54 demo. FOX & Friends also outpaced every primetime and daytime program on CNN for the year across the board and every MSNBC program in the younger A25-54 demo. FNC’s early AM show FOX & Friends First (weekday, 4-6 AM/ET), with co-hosts Todd Piro and Carley Shimkus, topped the competition in both categories, delivering 559,000 viewers and 113,000 in A25-54.

Kaitlan Collins is reporting from Warsaw, Poland today on Biden’s trip to that country to mark the first anniversary of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Biden made a brief surprise visit Kyiv to show support to Zelensky and Ukraine in its battle for sovereignty. It was Biden’s seventh trip to Ukraine, his first since Putin’s invasion. Biden is slated to meet with other NATO leaders in Warsaw. It’s his first visit there since he delivered his speech on the war in Ukraine last March in Warsaw.

Is Don Lemon’s employment with CNN hanging by a thread? Probably. He sure doesn’t generate favorable headlines for the network. Funny, Hillary Clinton was pushing 70 when she ran for president and I don’t remember Don saying she was past her prime.