Don Lemon is defending his work after facing backlash and a warning from the Justice Department following an anti-ICE protest that disrupted a church service in St. Paul, Minnesota.
The former CNN anchor said he was unfairly singled out for covering the demonstration at Cities Church, where protesters interrupted worship while calling for accountability around immigration enforcement. Speaking to Fox News Digital, Lemon said he was just doing his job.
NEW: Don Lemon tries lecturing a pastor on the First Amendment after a mob of far leftists stormed a church in Minneapolis.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 18, 2026
Pastor: “This is unacceptable. It's shameful to interrupt a public gathering of Christians in worship…”
Lemon: “Listen, there's a constitution, the First… pic.twitter.com/joHdCvaXe6
“I’ve been made the public face of something I was there to report on, even though I wasn’t the only journalist present,” he said, adding that the reaction has included “violent threats, along with homophobic and racist slurs” online.
Lemon claimed that the protest was tied to recent ICE activity in Minnesota and the death of Renee Nicole Good. “If this much energy is going into manufactured outrage, it would be better spent investigating why people were in the streets to begin with,” he said. “I stand by my reporting.”
Thank you Don Lemon for getting this recording!
— Winter (@WPolitics1) January 18, 2026
A church in Minnesota reportedly has a ICE agent as a pastor.
Churches are supposed to be safe havens and if this pastor is a AGENT, he is definitely reporting people.pic.twitter.com/gZyFbFZf0b
The U.S. Department of Justice civil rights official Harmeet Dhillon then suggested Lemon’s presence inside the church could cross legal lines. On social media, she warned that houses of worship are protected spaces and said Lemon was “on notice.”
Lemon responded in a video on Instagram, denying any coordination with organizers. “I didn’t know they were going to that church until we followed them there,” he said. “Once it happened, we reported on it. That’s journalism.”
