“Maybe there were some warning signs just below the radar,” said Laura Ingraham, host of “The Ingraham Angle,” Wednesday night on Fox News, about recently ousted “Today” show co-anchor Matt Lauer and the sexual harassment allegations made against him.

While many people seemed surprised, even shocked, that Lauer was fired after more than 20 years on the air, Ingraham noted there may have been smoke long before there was fire when it came to Lauer and his actions.

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For example: In a 2012 interview on “Watch What Happens Live,” Lauer’s former “Today” show co-host, Katie Couric, brought up the fact that Lauer — only the latest public figure to be accused of misconduct after the likes of Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Al Franken and others — “pinched my a** a lot” while she worked with him. While it was seen as a joke at the time, it’s clear now that the anchor likely was serious — and that her words were given little weight by those listening back then.

Ingraham also pointed to a skit, previously run on the “Today” show, that made a joke of Lauer’s exposing himself to female co-hosts. It’s a clip that is now gaining attention around the web in light of allegations against the disgraced anchor.

With all this evidence and the number of allegations flying around, Ingraham said it was “hard to believe” no one at NBC knew about Lauer’s alleged behavior before the recent official complaint was referenced in a statement announcing his departure from the network.

Related: Matt Lauer Dropped by NBC Over Sexual Harassment Allegations

Before the complaint and firing, Variety and The New York Times were both working on investigations, reportedly, into Lauer’s conduct toward women.

Howard Kurtz, the host of Fox News’ “Media Buzz,” agreed with Ingraham in a later segment — and called NBC’s firing of Lauer a “pre-emptive move” in light of investigations in the works.

Also making an appearance on “The Ingraham Angle” Wednesday night was former presidential candidate Herman Cain, who spoke about the consequences that false sexual misconduct allegations can have.

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Cain faced allegations about his conduct while running for president in 2012.

“Now, I can’t talk about all these situations, but I can talk about my situation,” Cain said. “There were a lot of accusations and there was a lot of speculation to try to derail my campaign, but no confirmation. And the reason was the liberal media didn’t want to know the truth. They did not want to know what the facts were about the people that were accusing me.”

He continued, “Now, what’s different about my situation, and let’s just say Roy Moore’s situation, is that they came after me with repeated attacks and accusations but no confirmation. They now believe that if they throw more and more and more mud on the wall, that eventually people are going to believe it.”

(photo credit, article image: Garrison Keillor Poetry Reading, cut out and desaturated, CC BY 2.0, by Ryan Somma)