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CNN’s Don Lemon walked back comments he made Thursday morning about Nikki Haley being past her “prime” as a woman.

“The reference I made to a woman’s ‘prime’ this morning was inartful and irrelevant, as colleagues and loved ones have pointed out, and I regret it,” Lemon tweeted on Thursday. “A woman’s age doesn’t define her either personally or professionally. I have countless women in my life who prove that every day.”

The statement is addressing Lemon’s CNN This Morning commentary on Haley’s proposal that elderly politicians in America should have to be evaluated for mental competence. Lemon wound up in a tense conversation with co-host Poppy Harlow when he said that Haley is no longer in her own prime, and that a woman is only in her “prime” from her 20s through her 40s.

“I’m just saying what the facts are. Google it. Everybody at home, when is a woman in her prime?” Lemon said. “It says 20s, 30s

and 40s. I’m just saying Nikki Haley should careful about saying that politics are not in their prime, and they need to be in their prime when they serve. She would not be in her prime according to Google.”

Haley responded to Lemon’s remarks by calling them “sexist,” and his words were condemned by a bipartisan mix of other news observers.

Tags: CNN, Don Lemon, Nikki Haley, women