Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene defended the arrest of former CNN host Don Lemon Friday in connection to his coverage of an anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protest that disrupted a Minnesota church service.
“I don’t think that’s journalism. That’s not [the] First Amendment,” Greene said of Lemon’s involvement Friday on “Real Time with Bill Maher.”
On Friday, federal agents arrested Lemon and charged him with civil rights crimes, including conspiracy to deprive civil rights and interfering with religious freedom.
Lemon livestreamed left-wing agitators who stormed St. Paul’s Cities Church on Jan. 18 under the suspicion that its pastor had collaborated with ICE.
Greene appeared to be the sole defender of Lemon’s arrest on HBO’s late-night panel.
“It’s not good to arrest [Lemon],” Maher said.
The former congresswoman pushed back on Maher’s argument, citing the federal law that protects religious exercise at places of worship.
“Well, I’m going to say he violated the FACE Act,” Greene countered. “He went into a church, disrupted their worship and then later in an interview compared them to White supremacists.”
“That’s not journalism,” Greene asserted. “That’s activism.”
“But does it warrant getting arrested?” Maher asked.
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Greene went on to argue that Lemon joined “activists” in “harassing people” in the middle of church, provoking children to cry.
Meanwhile, Greene’s fellow panelist and MS NOW co-host Joe Scarborough found no fault with Lemon being “aggressive” in his reporting.
“I think there has to be sort of a differentiation between if somebody’s going in there and saying, ‘I’m not with them, can I ask you some questions?’”
“Because you’re going to have embeds in war, you’re going to have embeds in protests,” Scarborough continued.
He went on to claim Lemon’s arrest was intended by the Trump administration to “scare” other journalists.
On Jan. 19, Lemon offered his team’s explanation for how he became “the face” of anti-ICE protests in Minnesota.
“My producers said, ‘Don, you’re a gay, Black man in America. And you have a platform, and you’re the biggest name,’” Lemon said on Jennifer Welch’s “I’ve Had It” podcast.
He went on to blast “racist, bigoted homophobes” for singling him out after covering the protest in Cities Church.
“Of course you’re going to be the person that they single out, and they’re gonna make the headline because it plays to their base, and their base is full of racist, bigoted homophobes like Nicki Minaj, by the way,” Lemon added.
The former CNN host was released without bond and is scheduled to appear in federal court in Minneapolis on Feb. 9.
