How do you stay relevant in the world of independent journalism when you’ve crashed out of the world of establishment journalism for being facile and obnoxious, both in front of and behind the camera?
Former CNN host Don Lemon provided at least one answer to that riddle this weekend, and it made one wish for the heady days of Dan Rather and Christiane Amanpour. No, for real.
After a group of minatory protesters shut down church services at a St. Paul, Minnesota congregation because the pastor at least has the same name as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office director, Lemon came in afterwards to lecture the pastor on the mob’s actions, claiming they had the same First Amendment rights as he did to congregate religiously and insinuated this meant he had the obligation to “talk to them.”
Leave it to the man who once entertained the idea of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 getting sucked into a black hole to extrapolate the First Amendment’s freedom of religious practice to also include the freedom to interrupt religious practice.
Lemon was with a group calling itself the Racial Justice Network, according to the New York Post. During services on Sunday, they stormed the church where David Eastwood was a resident pastor, Cities Church in St. Paul, and made a scene.
Lemon streamed himself defending their behavior as they interrupted worship. Eastwood wasn’t even at the service, it turns out, and lead pastor Jonathan Parnell asked the mob to leave, calling their behavior “shameful.”
Lemon apparently disagreed, saying it was beautiful stuff.
“I just touched down in Minneapolis. This is the beginning of what’s going to happen here,” he said.
“When you violate people’s due process, when you pull people off the street and start dragging them and hurting them, um — and not abiding by the Constitution, and then we started doing all that, people get upset and angry. If you remember what the civil rights movement was about, the civil rights movement was about these very kinds of protests.
“There’s nothing in the Constitution that tells you what time you can protest. You can protest at any time. That’s the whole point of it is to disrupt, to make [people] uncomfortable, and that is what they are doing. And I believe when I say everyone has to be willing to sacrifice something, you have to make people uncomfortable in these times.”
BREAKING – Anti ICE agitators, led by failed CNN host Don Lemon, stormed a Minneapolis church this morning, halting services and holding members hostage because they believed the pastor was ICE affiliated.
“The whole point of it is to disrupt and make people uncomfortable.” pic.twitter.com/ddwPwpwV5E
— Right Angle News Network (@Rightanglenews) January 18, 2026
Lemon apparently seems to forget about things called trespassing or disturbing the peace, which do tell you “at what time you can protest” in a certain place. I also forgot what due process rights people with deportation orders had that allowed them to escape being taken into custody. And then there’s “interfering with Christian worshippers,” which is a civil rights violation and something the Department of Justice says they’re currently investigating.
But I digress, because things got worse when Lemon interviewed the pastor and insisted that the Christian thing to do to anti-ICE (and anti-Christian, if this is how they were going to go about seeking redress for their grievances, would be to have a chat with them.
NEW: Don Lemon tries lecturing a pastor on the First Amendment after a mob of far leftists stormed a church in Minneapolis.
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
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 18, 2026
“This is unacceptable. It’s shameful to interrupt a public gathering of Christians in worship,” the pastor said.
“Listen, there’s a Constitution, the First Amendment to freedom of speech and freedom to assemble and protest,” Lemon said, then asking Eastman if he tried “to talk to them?”
“No one is willing to talk,” the pastor said.
Well, except for Lemon, who needs the clicks.
This is inarguably shameful behavior, which is how it came across to those on X:
Activist narcissists will violate every boundary there is, interfere with your peaceful assembly, stop your worship, and then lecture you about the proper observance of both the First Amendment and your faith. Political DARVO. https://t.co/cVw3LwH7gz
— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) January 19, 2026
He clearly has no idea that there are many time, place and manner (not content-based) restrictions on free speech that have been upheld by SCOTUS. One such restriction involves places of worship where no, you may not just saunter in and protest. These ppl are about to FO. https://t.co/Mib7b2uHk2
— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) January 19, 2026
Leaving aside the shamefulness here, let’s ask ourselves a question: We all don’t like Don Lemon. Are we free to go into any public establishment he enters and harass him? Is that our First Amendment right? Can we set up an app to track Don Lemon sitings and then organize flash mobs to make his life unlivable?
That seems to be the absolutist line he draws: If you don’t like someone or something, the First Amendment precludes any barrier stopping you from harassing that person and others — in this case, people in a church trying to worship — at least in Don Lemon’s mind, so long as the venue is public or semi-public.
In my hypothetical, this interpretation means we can go into his local coffee shop and scream “Eight, nine, ten, eleven / Let’s get rid of this bad Lemon!” over and over again until everyone leaves. This is the Constitution, according to a former CNN anchor.
And the shamefulness factor must be addressed, too. We know what Lemon accomplished here, which was getting clicks. I know, I’m helping the guy out, but he’s already going viral for this sick stunt and the moral rot needs to be called out for what it is. What, pray tell (pun unintended), were the folks in the Racial Justice Network hoping to achieve?
In one fell swoop, they’ve turned virtually every person of faith against them — even the liberal Christians. They’ve taken a worship service, a hallowed and sacred rite that is an integral part of the Christian faith, and turned it into an advertisement for … what? The fact that these people haven’t learned from the excesses of the Summer of Floyd™?
We already knew Don Lemon was never going to learn. The fact that these people haven’t moved on from the same peak-woke tactics that alienated everyone the first time around. Good work, all of you.
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