Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

Don Lemon Claims It’s ‘Journalism’ To Defend Anti-ICE Rioters Who Stormed Church

Screenshot/TikTok/donlemon

Former CNN host Don Lemon defended his actions while covering the disruption of a Minneapolis church service by rioters opposed to immigration enforcement in a Sunday TikTok video.

Lemon broadcast footage of the disruption via his YouTube channel, arriving at Cities Church in Minneapolis about 40 minutes into a lengthy Sunday livestream. Lemon responded to Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon’s Sunday post on X announcing that the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division was probing the incident.

“The MAGA administration and the fake news MAGAs are losing their mind over something that’s not even true. So let me just make it clear, ‘cause this assistant attorney general, I don’t know — gosh, what’s her name? Something Hammet Dillon or whatever. So, I have no affiliation to that organization,” Lemon claimed. “I didn’t even know they were going to this church until we followed them there. We were there chronicling protests.”

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@donlemonMAGA Snowflakes Spreading Fake News Again!♬ original sound – Don Lemon

“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 a pastor and members of the church and members of the organization,” Lemon continued. “That’s it. It’s called journalism. First Amendment, all that stuff, for all of you people who believe in the First Amendment, absolutists, 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 protests at the church before you start blaming me for stuff for which you have no idea? Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

During his livestream, Lemon repeatedly defended the protesters, at one point claiming the Constitution allowed for any type of protest.

“The whole point of it is to disrupt and make people uncomfortable,” the former CNN host claimed.

At another part of the livestream, which showed children fleeing the church during the protest into the frigid weather (Minneapolis had a high temperature of 14 degrees Fahrenheit, according to WeatherSpark.com), Lemon casually discussed the incident as being “uncomfortable and traumatic” for the churchgoers.

“Watch this guy here, look, he’s hugging his kid, and you know, I imagine it is uncomfortable and traumatic for the people here,” Lemon said, pausing to warn his cameraman of slippery patches of ice and snow in Minneapolis. “It’s uncomfortable and traumatic for the people here, but that’s really… that’s what protesting is about.”

Prior to the disruption of the service, Lemon introduced the leader of the group, and hinted he knew where the rioters were going.

“They’re planning an operation that we’re going to follow them on. I can’t tell you exactly what they’re doing, but it’s called Operation Pull Up,” Lemon told viewers of the livestream. “Um, and it’s [Nekima Levy Armstrong], and she has been doing this since George Floyd, um, Dante Wright and others where they surprise people, catch them off guard and hold them to account.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi vowed in a Sunday post on X to use the “full force of federal law” in response to the incident.

“I just spoke to the Pastor in Minnesota whose church was targeted. Attacks against law enforcement and the intimidation of Christians are being met with the full force of federal law,” Bondi said. “If state leaders refuse to act responsibly to prevent lawlessness, this Department of Justice will remain mobilized to prosecute federal crimes and ensure that the rule of law prevails.”

The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (18 USC 248), which has primarily been used against pro-life protesters, also prohibits the disruption of religious services. Dhillon cited the legislation in posts on X Sunday.