Nikki Haley Spars With Don Lemon Over His Comments She’s Past ‘Her Prime’

(Bloomberg) -- Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley is hitting back at CNN anchor Don Lemon, who is walking back comments he made about her age.

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“Liberals can’t stand the idea of having competency tests for older politicians to make sure they can do the job,” tweeted Haley, 51, who announced this week that she will seek the GOP nomination for president in 2024.

Haley has positioned herself as part of a “new generation” and a young leader who will “move past the stale ideas and faded names of the past.”Lemon and his fellow hosts of CNN This Morning were discussing her calls for competency tests for politicians over age 75, when Lemon opined on her own age. “Nikki Haley isn’t in her prime, sorry. A woman is considered to be in their prime in 20s and 30s and maybe 40s.” he said on the program. “If you Google ‘when is a woman in her prime,’ it’ll say 20s, 30s and 40s.”

A few hours later, he said he regretted the comments. “The reference I made to a woman’s ‘prime’ this morning was inartful and irrelevant,” Lemon wrote on Twitter. “A woman’s age doesn’t define her personally or professionally.”

A spokesperson for CNN pointed to Lemon’s tweet and declined to comment further.

Haley was the youngest and first minority female governor in the country when she was elected in South Carolina in 2010. She is 25 years younger than former President Donald Trump, the only other Republican to launch a bid, and 29 years younger than President Joe Biden, the oldest person to ever hold the office. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who hasn’t formally launched a bid for the presidency but is seen as being the top Republican contender, is 44.

The same day as Haley’s exchange with Lemon, Biden’s doctor said the president is “healthy” and “vigorous” following a routine physical.

--With assistance from Gerry Smith.

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