‘CBS This Morning’ Co-Hosts Condemn Charlie Rose on Air

If viewers of CBS This Morning were unsure what they’d find during Tuesday morning’s show after Charlie Rose sexual harassment allegations surfaced on Monday, they’re now crystal clear as to where Rose’s co-hosts stand on the issue.

Gayle King and Noah O’Donnell told their audience in blunt terms how shaken they were by the allegations against their co-anchor. Their comments showed that it would be difficult for Rose to return to his seat on the show after a lurid Washington Post report detailing allegations by eight women saying that Rose harassed them with in certain cases with lewd comments, unwanted advances and appearing before them in states of undress.

“None of us ever thought we’d be sitting at this table in particular telling this story, but here we are,” King said, making a reference to the round-topped glass table that has become the center of the CBS morning program. “This is not the man I know, but I’m clearly on the side of the women who have been very hurt and very damaged by this,” she added.

O’Donnell added: “Let me be clear: There is no excuse for this alleged behavior…This I know is true: Women cannot achieve equality in the workplace or society until there is reckoning.”

She continued: “This will be investigated. This has to end. This behavior is wrong, period.”

CBS News said that it suspended Rose from his duties, as have PBS and Bloomberg, which have long distributed the anchor’s Charlie Rose program.

Thanks to his many years of nabbing longform interviews with heads of state and business on Charlie Rose, Rose, 75, has helped add a sense of legitimacy and gravitas to the CBS This Morning, which focuses on harder news more so than shows like the Today show or Good Morning America.

“It is essential that these women know I hear them and that I deeply apologize for my inappropriate behavior. I am greatly embarrassed. I have behaved insensitively at times, and I accept responsibility for that, though I do not believe that all of these allegations are accurate,” Rose said in a statement. “I always felt that I was pursuing shared feelings, even though I now realize I was mistaken.”