Don Lemon has ruffled more than just MAGA Barbie Nicki Minaj’s feathers. He is now being threatened with arrest for reporting on a protest in Cities Church in St. Paul, Minn. Here is what is going on.
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As we have previously reported, tensions between residents and immigration enforcement in Minnesota were heightened two weeks ago when an ICE agent fatally shot American citizen Renee Good. Since then, reporters have been on the ground attempting to provide sufficient coverage of what is happening in the state.
Lemon, in particular, has been singled out for doing so. Not only did the former CNN journalist face backlash from Nicki Minaj, who used homophobic slurs against the journalist for reporting on a protest inside a Minnesota church, but he’s also put the Trump administration on edge.
After clips of Lemon’s reports on the church were posted on his social media accounts, Harmeet Dhillon, the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for civil rights, claimed the DOJ would pursue charges related to the protest in St. Paul, accusing Lemon of being a part of a “criminal conspiracy,” according to NBC News.
Speaking on “The Benny Show,” a political podcast hosted by right-wing commentator Benny Johnson, Dhillon accused Lemon of attempting to use journalism as a shield for the conspiracy by reporting on the protest.
“He went into the facility, and then he began, quote, unquote, committing journalism. As if that’s sort of a shield from being a part, an embedded part of a criminal conspiracy. It isn’t,” Dhillon said.
She added, “Everyone in the protest community needs to know that the fullest force of the federal government is going to come down and prevent this from happening and put people away for a long, long time.”
In response to the threats of prosecution, Lemon pointed out to Fox News Digital that he is the only journalist who has been harassed for reporting on the protests in the church.
“It’s notable that I’ve been cast as the face of a protest I was covering as a journalist, especially since I wasn’t the only reporter there. That framing is telling. What’s even more telling is the barrage of violent threats, along with homophobic and racist slurs, directed at me online by MAGA supporters and amplified by parts of the right-wing press,” Lemon told the news outlet.
Lemon is not the only one who has found himself in trouble. According to The New York Times, federal prosecutors have issued subpoenas for Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, and St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her for their policies on immigration enforcement efforts in Minnesota.
The recent threats against Lemon have also caused a chilling effect for independent journalists online, who feel the First Amendment right of free speech is under threat.
TikToker and journalist Randi B noted, “The free press, free to share truth and opinion, is central to a free and truly democratic society. Trump wants neither, so his attacks continue.”
“Uninformed people are easily controlled people. Trump’s efforts to dismantle our constitutional rights continue. The First Amendment, literally the first one, establishes the freedom of speech as an inalienable right, and that right has long extended to freedom of the press. But now if Trump doesn’t like your message, he’ll seek to criminalize and prosecute the messenger,” Randi B told her viewers.
While threats against Lemon have folks on social media worried about what they can and cannot share, it has only emboldened people like Nicki Minaj. On X, she confidently expressed that she intended to send hateful slurs Lemon’s way.
“LOL!!! And I purposely wrote it that way b/c I knew that would be the only way to get the cock suckas to post about it. They would’ve all collectively ignored the despicable behavior displayed by Lemon head,” the “Starships” rapper posted.
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