WASHINGTON — President Trump ripped former CNN anchor Don Lemon Thursday over his claim that he was acting as a journalist when he followed a mob of anti-ICE protesters as they stormed a church in St. Paul, Minn. last month.
In remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump praised the Justice Department for pressing charges against Lemon and eight others who barged into the sanctuary while congregants were in the middle of worship.
“I watched that tape, and you know, that was violent,” Trump told his audience at the Washington Hilton. “The minister was great. He was so calm and good — they’re screaming at him, terrible, right in the middle of a church service, it’s got to be illegal.”
“They’re bad people. You have one Trump hater in particular,” the president continued, without referring to Lemon by name. “It was terrible. They tried to use freedom of the press and all this to get out of a criminal event, but that was a horrible thing to witness.”
Lemon was arrested in Los Angeles Jan. 30, where he was covering the Grammy Awards. Fellow independent journalist Georgia Fort was also arrested for her actions during the Jan. 18 storming of the church.
Both have since been released while the case is pending.
Protesters had barged into Cities Church in response to a report that a pastor worked as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer.
Lemon streamed the ordeal on his YouTube show and demonstrated advanced knowledge of what was coming.
Prosecutors say all nine defendants “oppressed, threatened, and intimidated the Church’s congregants and pastors” by staying in the main aisle and exhibiting “menacing and threatening behavior.”
Lemon, who was fired by CNN in 2023, is specifically alleged to have “physically obstructed” people from leaving the church amid the chaos.
“They want to embarrass you. They want to intimidate you. They want to instill fear, and so that’s why they did it that way,” Lemon reflected on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” Monday night.
Lemon and his legal team have argued that he was simply exercising his First Amendment rights as a journalist.
The feds have charged him with violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which is typically used to protect access to abortion clinics, but has a provision for religious services.
“I’m not doing it, but [Attorney General] Pam [Bondi] is doing it,” Trump said Thursday of the case against Lemon. “And I’ll tell you, people are happy with the job that’s taking place because they’re bad people.”
“If we allowed that to go on, you wouldn’t be able to have a church, everybody would be afraid to go to church.”
