CNN's Jeffrey Toobin Returns To Work, Apologizes For Masturbating On Zoom Call With Colleagues
Jeffrey Toobin has returned to work at CNN, just eight months after exposing himself on a zoom call with colleagues.
The network's top legal analyst came out of hiding on Thursday to address the masturbation scandal that took the news world by storm.
The intimate incident went down in October when Toobin began pleasuring himself during a zoom call with some of the biggest names at the New Yorker.
After a three-week internal investigation, the magazine fired him as a staff writer. CNN went with the soft approach, giving him time off before announcing a leave of absence.
Fast-forward to Thursday, and Toobin is back on the air with his tail between his legs.
Calling the 2020 incident “deeply moronic and indefensible," he was forced to talk about it when CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota asked him, “To quote Jay Leno, ‘What the hell were you thinking?'”
That's when Toobin explained his side of the story and dished out several apologies.
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“I didn’t think other people could see me,” he said, adding that it's no excuse.
“I have tried, and I am trying now, to say how sorry I am, sincerely, in all seriousness," Toobin continued. "Above all, I am sorry to my wife and to my family but I am also sorry to the people on the Zoom call, I’m sorry to my former colleagues at the New Yorker, I’m sorry to my current, fortunately, still colleagues at CNN and I’m sorry to the people who read my work and who watched me on CNN and who thought I was a better person than this.”
While he's sorry, he's also not happy with the New Yorker, telling Camerota that their decision to fire him was “excessive."
Saying he's "incredibly grateful" to CNN for welcoming him back, Toobin knows he has a long way to go before he's taken seriously again.
“I’m trying to become the kind of person people can trust again,” Toobin said. “I am a flawed human being that makes mistakes … It was wrong, it was stupid and I’m trying to be a better person.”
Toobin said the last several months have been "miserable." He's seeking therapy, and he's also writing a book.