SEE IT: Jeffrey Toobin’s awkward return to CNN after masturbation scandal

CNN welcomed back Jeffrey Toobin after a 7-month hiatus that began when the author and legal analyst was caught masturbating during a Zoom meeting with his colleagues at the New Yorker magazine.

“Hi Jeffrey,” CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota said Thursday to her sheepish guest. “It’s been a while.”

Toobin greeted her in return and agreed it had been a while. Camerota immediately suggested the pair talk about the elephant in the room and Camerota did “the honors” with Toobin’s approval.

She explained “what happened” in the months since Toobin was last on air, which included the lewd act that cost him the gig he had at the New Yorker for 27 years.

Camerota, channelling Jay Leno’s 1995 interview with actor Hugh Grant after the actor became embroiled in a sex scandal, asked “What the hell were you thinking?”

“Well, obviously I wasn’t thinking very well or very much,” he confessed.

Toobin then went on to explain that his actions were indefensible, but what he could say for himself, is that he didn’t think his computer’s camera was on and didn’t intend to subject his colleagues to what they saw.

“This was deeply moronic and indefensible,” he confessed.

Toobin described the period since that incident as “miserable months” in his life and said that he is trying to “be a better person” through therapy, volunteer work and writing.

“I am trying to become the kind of person that people can trust again,” he said.