The arrest of Don Lemon had “no basis in law or fact,” Rep. Hakeem Jeffries told Al Sharpton on MS NOW’s “PoliticsNation” on Saturday.
Lemon was charged with conspiracy and interfering with the First Amendment rights of worshipers after he was arrested by federal agents at a protest at a church in Minneapolis this week. He was arrested alongside seven other activists, “almost all of whom were Black,” Sharpton told Jeffries before he asked if the congressman agreed the Trump administration is targeting Black protestors and journalists.
“Well, there’s no doubt that Black and brown communities have been under assault during this presidency,” Jeffries answered. “Working-class communities of every color have been under assault during this presidency. The economy under assault, health care under assault, nutritional assistance under assault.”
He continued: “We know farmers and veterans have been under assault. Due process, the American way of life, the rule of law and democracy itself, it’s been an all-out assault on the American people. And Black and brown communities have been bearing a significant share of that extremism that has been unleashed here in the United States of America.”
Jeffries also directly addressed the arrest of the activists. “There was no basis in law or in fact to arrest Don Lemon or any of the other journalists,” he said. “We know that Don Lemon is an accomplished journalist with decades of service, consistent with the First Amendment in this country. Donald Trump is trying to intimidate people who stand up to him. But the American people have demonstrated over the last year, we will not be intimidated by these extremists. The American people are pushing back significantly across the board.”
The public, Jeffries insisted, knows “the Trump administration and the extremists in the Republican Party have failed the country.”
Lemon was arrested Thursday in Los Angeles, two weeks after he covered an anti-ICE protest in St. Paul, Minnesota.
“Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done,” his attorney Abbe Lowell said in a statement. “The First Amendment exists to protect journalists whose role it is to shine light on the truth and hold those in power accountable. There is no more important time for people like Don to be doing this work.”
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