Don Lemon has called out MAGA figures for “losing their mind” over his coverage of anti-ICE protesters who stormed a church during a Sunday service.
The former CNN anchor livestreamed himself joining a group of demonstrators who disrupted a service at Cities Church in Minneapolis to protest a pastor there who they said works for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The city has been the site of ongoing protests after 37-year-old Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent amid large-scale immigration raids.
Lemon faced calls from conservative figures to be tossed in jail for covering the protest, an act he repeatedly noted is protected under the First Amendment. Harmeet Dhillon, the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for civil rights and a top Donald Trump ally, even warned Lemon: “You are on notice!”
Lemon addressed the backlash and defended his coverage of the protest in a video posted online Sunday night.
“The MAGA administration and the fake news MAGAs are losing their mind over something that’s not even true,” Lemon said.
“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. 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,” Lemon said.
“It’s called journalism, First Amendment, all that stuff. All of you people who believe in the First Amendment absolutist, there you go. So why don’t you talk to the actual person who is in charge of the organization and whose idea was to have the protest at the church before you start blaming me for stuff for which you have no idea.”
“Thank you for your attention to this matter,” he added, mimicking Donald Trump’s favored sign-off.
Lemon also spoke to the church’s pastor, who said the protest was “unacceptable.”
“It’s shameful to interrupt a public gathering of Christians in worship,” the pastor added.
In response, Lemon said: “There’s a Constitution, the First Amendment to freedom of speech and freedom to assemble and protest.”
Elsewhere during the livestream, Lemon told viewers: “This is what the First Amendment is about, the freedom to protest. I’m sure people here don’t like it, but protests are not comfortable.”
Multiple MAGA figures reacted with fury to both the protest and Lemon’s coverage.
“President Trump will not tolerate the intimidation and harassment of Christians in their sacred places of worship,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt posted on X. “The Department of Justice has launched a full investigation into the despicable incident that took place earlier today at a church in Minnesota.”
Dhillon wrote: “A house of worship is not a public forum for your protest! It is a space protected from exactly such acts by federal criminal and civil laws! Nor does the First Amendment protect your pseudo journalism of disrupting a prayer service. You are on notice!”
Auron MacIntyre, a host for the right-wing media company The Blaze, also posted on X: “Every protester in this video has committed a federal crime. They can all be easily identified. Don Lemon needs to be in custody by the end of the day if the administration is to ever be taken seriously again.”
The post Don Lemon Bites Back at MAGA After Anti-ICE Confrontation appeared first on The Daily Beast.
