Megyn Kelly was adamant that Don Lemon should still be arrested for his part in an ICE protest barging into a Minneapolis church last week — despite the fact a judge rejected the DOJ effort to charge him on Thursday.
On Thursday’s episode of “The Megyn Kelly Show,” the host was shocked that Lemon was not charged for covering the protest earlier in the day after Attorney General Pam Bondi said officials arrested Chauntyll Louisa Allen, Nekima Levy Armstrong and William Kelly for entering the church during services. Kelly strongly disagreed with the defense that Lemon was exercising his First Amendment rights and rather encouraged the protests to continue.
“He got in the face of that pastor who made clear no one wants to talk to you,” Kelly recounted. “He kept it pushing. He’s on camera saying trauma is part of the process. Being forced to feel uncomfortable is part of the process.”
She continued: “He argued that the First Amendment allowed it. He said that in front of a room full of people that the First Amendment allowed them to be. All of this is assistance and participation in the actual protest. It’s not journalism.”
Watch the “Megyn Kelly Show” segment below:
Lemon and a film crew followed the protestors, commented on the protests and interviewed both the pastor and the demonstrators, but he did not specifically demonstrate. Abbe Lowell, an attorney for Lemon, praised the judge’s decision not to charge the journalist.
“It was no different than what he has done for more than 30 years, reporting and covering newsworthy events on the ground and engaging in constitutionally protected activity as a journalist,” Lowell said.
Lemon released his own statement early in the week. He pushed back against criticism from the Department of Justice of his coverage of the protest that interrupted a church service in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Sunday, telling both viewers and his critics that he and his team were performing an “act of journalism.”
“We were there chronicling protests,” Lemon said in an Instagram video. “Once the protest started in the church, we did an act of journalism, which was report on it and talk to the people who were involved, which included the pastor, members of the church and members of the organization. That’s it. It’s called journalism. First Amendment. All that stuff.”
A DOJ spokesperson did not respond to an immediate request for comment, though a source close to Bondi told CBS News the attorney general was “enraged” by the decision. A separate source said the department may try other avenues to charge Lemon.
