Actress and talk show host Whoopi Goldberg attacked former Governor Nikki Haley on Monday, using the exact same insult that had numerous critics calling for CNN anchor Don Lemon to lose his job.
Goldberg played a clip of Haley’s campaign ad — released along with the official announcement that she intended to seek the 2024 Republican presidential nomination — and apparently took issue with the former ambassador to the United Nations’ claim that she would bring a “new generation” of leadership into Washington.
WATCH:
Whoopi Goldberg echoes her pal Don Lemon's "past her prime" attack on Nikki Haley.
"You're not a new generation! You're 51! What are you talking about?!" she sneered.
Adding: "She may be younger .. [but] he's saying the same BS." pic.twitter.com/3UXGSbIodz— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) February 20, 2023
Haley, noting that most American politicians were “past their prime,” said in her ad, “It’s time for a new generation of leadership.”
Goldberg stopped the clip, interrupting, “You’re not a new generation. You’re 51! What are you talking about?”
Republican cohost Alyssa Farah Griffin pushed back, arguing that compared to much of Washington, D.C., Haley certainly was a different generation. At 51, for example, she is 29 years younger than President Joe Biden and 38 years younger than retiring Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA).
“But it’s not a new generation,” Goldberg insisted, suggesting that Haley didn’t count as a “new generation” because she still held Republican ideals. “She may be younger than most of those people but her rhetoric is the same. She’s saying the same beats and I love the young kid, but you know what? The only way you’re going to get younger people to run, dude, is if you’re out there talking to people and saying, ‘Run!'”
Goldberg’s complaint came on the heels of an awkward CNN segment in which anchor Don Lemon, 56, claimed that Haley — at 51 — was “not in her prime.”
Over the objections of his two female co-hosts, Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins, Lemon continued to insist it was common knowledge that a woman’s “prime” was her 20s, 30s, and maybe her 40s — and then directed anyone who did not believe his assertion to “Google it.”
In the wake of Lemon’s comments, critics have called for the former primetime anchor to be ousted from the network altogether. Lemon spent the weekend away — missing Monday’s broadcast — but CNN denied reports that his vacation had anything to do with the backlash to his comments.