Speech Or Silence: Don Lemon Is A Terrorist

Promoting Church Invasions Is Not Journalism

On January 18, a group of protesters insurrectionists and domestic terrorists invaded Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. With loud chants, they barged into the chapel and completely shut down the ongoing worship service.

These basic facts are not in dispute, nor can they be disputed, as there is ample video evidence of the event.

On Thursday, January 29, Don Lemon, who has previously masqueraded as a journalist at CNN, was arrested for his role in the church invasion, and consequent violations of the worshipers’ First Amendment rights to worship God in peace.

A source briefed on the investigation said Lemon faces charges of conspiracy to deprive others of their civil rights and violation of the FACE Act by allegedly interfering by force with the exercise of others’ First Amendment rights.

Almost on cue, numerous voices from within corporate media and across the progressive left howled in carefully styled outrage at the government’s “violation” of Don Lemon’s First Amendment rights as a journalist. Don Lemon was immediately characterized as a victim of a government war on press freedom.

That narrative has one fatal flaw: by participating in the church invasion, Don Lemon abandoned any journalistic role and became a participant in what can only be described as an act of domestic terrorism.

As Don Lemon was a terrorist on January 18, and not a journalist, there should be no outrage, no cries of “freedom of the press”, no accusations of censorship or anything similar.

As Don Lemon was a terrorist on January 18, the only fitting response to his actions that day is disgust and disdain.

Free Speech Is A Moral Imperative

We must begin with the most important point of all: Free Speech is a Moral Imperative. I have argued this many times with my Free Speech Matters section, and the premise is foundational to my work with All Facts Matter.

I like to believe that this precept is a hill on which I am prepared to die (and I thank God daily I have yet to be called to make good on that!).

The First Amendment prohibition on government regulation of the press is an inevitable adjunct to the imperative of Free Speech. Whenever a person endeavors to relay details of events going on in the world around us, that person is engaged in journalism and must be accorded the space to report what they see free from coercion, intimidation, or restraint.

Yet because Free Speech is a Moral Imperative, it is equally imperative that we be moral about our speech. We have a duty to speak honestly and forthrightly. We also have a duty to be honest about when our presumed “speech” crosses over into action. We have a duty to be honest about when those claiming to “report” the news cross over into becoming the news.

No matter how long Don Lemon was employed at CNN, no matter the quality of his work there or since he was fired from The Most Busted Name in Fake News, when he elected to accompany this group on their church invasion, he elected to become a part of the story, which precludes him from reporting on the story.

Did Don Lemon elect to become part of the story? Yes. He was not merely reporting on a singular incident, he was accompanying that group for the entire day, providing his YouTube followers with a seven-hour livestream of that entire day. Ironically, he provides the evidence that his was an act of participation and not journalism.

As a reporter, Don Lemon has an unfettered right to document both the ICE enforcement actions in Minneapolis and the insurrection that has erupted around those enforcement actions. The First Amendment makes that abundantly clear.

Don Lemon’s problem is that day he was not a reporter. On January 18, Don Lemon chose to participate in an act of domestic terrorism. All protections we should give reporters were immediately forfeited when he made that choice.

Church Invasion Was An Act Of Domestic Terrorism

As the video footage of the event makes clear, the people involved in the assault on Cities Church were indisputably engaged in an act of domestic terrorism.

In federal law¹, “domestic terrorism” is defined thus:

(5) the term “domestic terrorism” means activities that—

(A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State;

(B) appear to be intended—

(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;

(ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or

(iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and

(C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States;

Were their actions “dangerous to human life”? Invading any private property is presumptively dangerous. When the act invites escalation, that danger is further magnified. Indeed, we are fortunate that events did not escalate, as the invasion could have easily degenerated into a brawl.

Moreover, the act itself was a clear violation of the federal FACE Act², which prohibits any disruption of a person’s right to worship.

The immediate inference from the chant “Renee Good” is that they intended to intimidate the churchgoers and the pastor into not working with or supporting ICE in their immigration enforcement actions (the pastor, David Easterwood, has been reported as also being an official with ICE).

While the Department of Justice has declined to prosecute either Don Lemon or the other church invaders as domestic terrorists, their conduct at Cities Church invites calling them domestic terrorists. With or without prosecution, their conduct falls within the scope of what the law considers domestic terrorism.

Yes, Don Lemon Participated

While Don Lemon will insisted loudly to anyone who will listen that he was there strictly as a journalist, the evidence of his own livestream is damning.

Don Lemon quite literally was with this group for an entire day, both before and after their assault on the Cities Church. We know this to be indisputable fact because he livestreamed his entire day with them.

How can we know that Don Lemon participated in this event and was not merely reporting on it? Again, we can look to his own livestream for the evidence.

The very first indicator that Don Lemon was more than “just” a reporter comes in his initial interview with one of the organizers of the church invasion, Nakima Levy Armstrong.

Don Lemon: There we go everybody’s ready to go let’s go okay thank you guys for being thanks for allowing me to be here thank you guys okay how are you good to see you we’re we’re on we’re not saying what it is what’s going on but thank you tell us why are you doing this so this is Nekima Levy Armstrong she’s on the show on friday Armstrong civil rights attorney long-time activist here in the community

Nekima Levy Armstrong: And, you know, we protest and do activism in all kinds of ways. This is Operation Pull-Up, more of a clandestine operation. We show up somewhere that is a key location. They don’t expect us to come there. And then we disrupt business as usual. So that’s what we’re about to go do right now. We’ve had a lot of success with the times we have done Operation Pull-Up.

After George Floyd was killed, we went to the… Police Federation heads home and stage a demonstration there. We also went to the head of the U.S. Marshals from Minnesota after Winston Smith was killed by the U.S. Marshals. We went there after Daunte Wright was killed when A.G. Keith Ellison refused to take the case. And we forced the prosecutor who lived in Stillwater to take the case by showing up there four times.

So this is our next action to call for justice for Renee Good and ICE out of Minnesota.

Don Lemon: But you get results.

Nekima Levy Armstrong: Yes, we get results.

Don Lemon: And with Deontay Wright, you got results.

Nekima Levy Armstrong: We got results because the AG’s office was forced to take the case, and they successfully prosecuted the cop who killed Daunte Wright. The U.S. marshal got uprooted from her position for Minnesota. And then this was the start of weakening the leadership of the head of the police federation, Bob Crow, who later we filed a lawsuit against, and he cannot, we settled, he cannot be a law enforcement agency in Hennepin County, Anoco, or Ramsey for 10 years. So we’ve had success every single time.

Don Lemon: How long do you think before this operation, before it takes place?

Nekima Levy Armstrong: We got to go now and get there.

Don Lemon: Let’s go.

Nekima Levy Armstrong: All right. Thank you.

Don Lemon: We’ll see you there. Thank you.

There are several small details here that show Lemon is already blurring the lines between reporter and participant.

First there is the Freudian slip he has where he expresses support for what is about to happen. When he catches himself saying “thank you guys for being” and adjusts to “thanks for allowing me to be here”, he is making his support for the event plain.

Nekima Levy Armstrong herself creates further problems for Lemon’s “reporter” posture when she describes the action as “clandestine”. It is also plain from the prior actions she describes that “Operation Pop-Up” involves criminal trespass. Those prior actions targeted individuals’ homes, and did so repeatedly.

Without the actual specifics of the events in question, I would be speculating on what laws might have been broken by those prior actions, but trespass and harassment are broadly understood as criminal behaviors in both Minnesota and Federal law.

What is not speculation is Levy Armstrong’s frank admission that their goal is intimidation and coercion.

Recall the definition of “domestic terrorism” within federal law. Levy Armstrong’s group is without a doubt flirting with that definition with apparently every action they take.

When Don Lemon gets in his vehicle with his cameraman, we can see that the lines are blurred even further.

Don Lemon: As Nekima said, this is clandestine, a clandestine operation. And then we can tell you what’s going to happen afterward. But I got to say, I’ve been really heartened by... You want me to pull up? Yeah. You want to switch sides? Let me grab this. All right, so look, we’re live here. This is live, raw. Mike doesn’t have a cup holder back there. Unless, oh, you do, it’s probably in there. Here, I have one. Here, can you help him just grab that stuff? Put it on the other side. Are you good, Mike?

“Mike”: Yeah, just one of my hands is like frozen.

Don Lemon: Oh, yeah.

“Mike”: Yeah, I got a hand with one.

Don Lemon: Yeah, it is, what’s the temperature here?

Driver: It’s about two to four degrees right now. Yeah, two to four degrees, and it’s snowing.

Don Lemon: You gotta, go ahead, you just take care of that. Do you have hand warmers, Mike? Mike, I’m gonna put this in the door. Do you want your coffee? All right, gotta look out for my homie here. All right. Can we show everyone? Let me show everybody this. We went to the Starbucks here. You know where we’re going, right? We went to the Starbucks here. The guy’s like, does anybody tell you that you look just like Don Lemon? And I said, yeah, do you see my hat? And he goes, I know, I know. I’m sorry. What do you say? I’m embarrassed. I’m hiding right now. And then he wrote this on our cup. He said, thank you for your work. Crush ICE. Yeah. Seatbelts, everybody.

While the conversation is by itself fairly banal chatter, there are three statements by Don which indicate he is not merely reporting on the event, but is very much supportive of it.

The first is his confirmation that his driver knows where to go. Lemon and his crew had advance knowledge of what was about to take place. Given the obvious criminality involved with storming into a church, he was given advance warning that Nekima Levy Armstrong’s group was about to commit a criminal act.

The second is his admission that he is “heartened” by what is about to take place. Don Lemon is, in an unguarded moment, confirming that he approves of what is about to take place. It is an odd sort of objectivity for a reporter to be “heartened” by a planned act of criminality which flirts with domestic terrorism—and if Don Lemon is not being objective then he is not being a reporter.

The third is the anecdote about Starbucks. While Don Lemon was clearly enjoying being a celebrity, the message the barista wrote on his Starbucks cup—”thank you for your work. Crush ICE”—demonstrates that the barista perceived Don Lemon to be a supporter of Levy Armstrong’s group and of the Democrat Insurrection in general. Don Lemon was clearly flattered by that perception. Not only did he not deny it, he chose to brag about it.

Levy Armstrong’s group did not perceive Don Lemon as a reporter, but as a fellow activist. He was not there to report the news, but to chronicle the group’s activities.

That’s not journalism. That’s public relations.

Lemon tipped his hand even further when he actively facilitated another group member’s participation after that individual became stuck in a snowbank.

While as a rule helping someone who is stuck in a snowbank is a generous act, we must remember that, in this instance, said generous act also had the effect of facilitating that person’s future participation in the church invasion. Don Lemon left the line between reporting on the event and participating in it when he got out of the car to help the other vehicle get unstuck.

As the video makes clear, there were plenty of other people who were helping (and who were far more helpful than Don Lemon ultimately was). This was not a case of rendering life-saving aid to a person in distress. Don Lemon was actively helping another person participate in a clearly criminal act.

That’s not reporting. That’s not journalism. The essential quality of good journalism is not becoming part of the story.

As Abe Rosenthal, former managing editor of the New York Times back in the 1980s, is believed to have said:

“OK, the rule is, you can f*** an elephant if you want to, but if you do you can’t cover the circus.”

Reporters must not ever become part of the stories on which they want to report.

From the very beginning of his livestream, Don Lemon failed to respect that boundary. He crossed it casually and carelessly. As he did not care about journalistic boundaries then, he has no claim on journalistic protections now.

Small Details Matter Even For Don Lemon

Many will perhaps say I am niggling and nit-picking with these seemingly small details.

These are “small” details within the overall narrative of Don Lemon’s livestream, but they are important details.

They are details which show that Don Lemon went to this church invasion with foreknowledge

They are details which show he knew laws were going to be broken

They are details which show he supported both the group and what was about to happen, and he actively engaged in facilitating the criminal event itself.

From the very beginning of his livestream, Don Lemon made plain by his own actions that he was not there to report, but to advocate. Don Lemon’s role in the church invasion was to bring the theater. He made sure the group would be seen by a wide audience.

That’s not journalism, that’s public relations.

We know he was doing public relations because while at the church, while the chapel was still invaded and worshipers were still being terrorized, he was defending the group’s activities and even calling for more such incidents.

I’m sure they probably call the local authorities right now and they’ll show up in a bit. But so far, no one has been hurt. People are just really angry and upset. Members of the church are trying to get them to calm down.

But this is the beginning of what’s going to happen here. When you violate people’s due process, when you pull people off the street and you start dragging them and hurting them and not abiding by the Constitution, when you start doing all of that, people get upset and angry.

And if you remember what the civil rights movement was about, The civil rights movement was about these very kinds of protests. And for some reason, in our modern era, people think that in order to have protests, you gotta be cordoned off to a certain area. and you know what time you can protest 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 uncomfortable and that’s what they’re doing and that’s what I believe when I say everyone has to be willing to sacrifice something you have to make people uncomfortable in these times if you see how uncomfortable people uncomfortably and how harsh people are being treated on the streets. You have to be willing to go into places and disrupt and make people uncomfortable. That is what this country is about.

What Don Lemon conveniently omits, of course, is that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. entered churches to pray and to preach. What Don Lemon conveniently omits is that the Civil Rights Movement was built on churches. What Don Lemon conveniently omits is that the Civil Rights Movement did not attack churches.

That particular infamy belonged to those who fought against civil rights.

Don Lemon is explicitly and proudly defending the tactics of the KKK. He is calling for more such attacks on places such as churches, all in the name of making people “uncomfortable.”

Don Lemon forgets that the First Amendment also guarantees people the freedom to worship God in peace. That, too, is an inalienable right of man. That is a right Don Lemon and Nekima Levy Armstrong desecrated with their church invasion.

Those details matter. Those details matter because those details prove that Don Lemon is wrong about what this country is about. Terrorism and intimidation are not what the Constitution lifts up. Terrorism and intimidation were not what the Civil Rights Movement sought to achieve. Terrorism and intimidation are not Free Speech and never were.

Don Lemon is not merely wrong—he is deceitfully and delusionally wrong. Being deceitful as well as delusional, he is indisputably not a journalist.

Don Lemon was not a reporter on January 18. He was a promoter. He was proudly and explicitly promoting an act of domestic terrorism. He was proudly and explicitly encouraging more such acts. He was proudly and explicitly calling for more attacks against people’s right to worship God in peace.

Don Lemon participated in a church invasion. Don Lemon promoted and publicized a church invasion. Don Lemon advocated church invasions to terrorize and intimidate people.

On January 18, Don Lemon stood with domestic terrorists.

On January 18, Don Lemon chose to be a domestic terrorist.

We know this is true because Don Lemon made sure we know, with his own livestream and his own words.

Don Lemon was not a journalist that day. He has no claim to any First Amendment protections as a journalist.

Those who claim that Don Lemon’s arrest was an attack on press freedom and on Free Speech are wrong.

Don Lemon’s arrest was a defense of the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of worship. It was a hope that consequences will come for domestic terrorists who think it okay to violate the House of God.

Don Lemon’s arrest was a message to Don Lemon especially that, no, violating the House of God, terrorizing people while at worship, and denying them their right to worship in peace are not “protest”. They are not ever okay.

1. 18 USC §2331(5)

2. 18 USC §248