Don Lemon admitted he was embedded with anti-ICE agitators in Minneapolis and knew of their plans before they burst into a St. Paul church during Sunday services — despite claiming he was there as a journalist and had no advance knowledge of what was going down.
Speaking on camera from a snowy parking lot in the Twin Cities, Lemon said he had done some “reconnaissance” with activist groups ahead of the storming of Cities Church.
“These are resistance protesters, they’re planning an operation we’re going to follow them on. I can’t tell you exactly what they’re doing, but it’s called Operation Pull-Up,” he said in the livestream.
“It’s Nekima Armstrong, she’s been doing this since George Floyd, Daunte Wright and others, where they surprise people, catch them off-guard and hold them to account,” the former CNN host added, dropping the name of a prominent local activist.
“So that’s what we’re doing here, and after we do this operation, you’ll see it live, these operations are surprise operations, again I can’t tell you where they’re going,” he said.
INTENT: The opening to Don Lemon’s insane livestream is an admission of foreknowledge that the group he was in contact with was going to storm a church, based on his prior communications with its leader. pic.twitter.com/g0GVHB4871
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) January 19, 2026
Lemon also expressed bewilderment upon seeing the anti-ICE demonstrators holding an American flag, which he called “MAGA-coded.”
Soon after the footage was shot, dozens of protesters barged into the church and took over a morning prayer service, chanting “ICE out.”
After being criticized by Harmeet Dhillon, the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for civil rights, who warned Lemon he was “on notice,” Lemon attempted to walk back his earlier remarks — and condescendingly explaining the concept of journalism to his critics.
“I had no affiliations with that organization. I didn’t even know they were going to this church until we followed them. We were there chronicling protests,” he said in direct contradiction of his previous assertions.
“Once the protest started in the church, we did an act of journalism, which was report on it and talk to the people who were involved, which included the pastor, members of the church, and members of the organization. That’s it.”
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