On January 18, 2026, video footage showed former CNN anchor Don Lemon side-by-side with anti-ICE activists who later stormed Cities Church in St. Paul, interrupting worship and frightening congregants. The footage and eyewitness accounts show Lemon following the group into the church and livestreaming the disruption, a scene that looks far more like an activist operation than impartial reporting.
The Justice Department’s civil-rights apparatus has already been forced to weigh in, with Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon putting Lemon “on notice” and flagging possible violations of the FACE Act that protect houses of worship. This isn’t a partisan press release — federal lawyers are signaling they will examine whether the disruption crossed the line from protest into criminal interference with religious exercise.
Lemon insists he was simply doing “journalism” and claims no formal affiliation with the organizers, invoking the First Amendment as his shield while footage suggests otherwise. Claiming journalistic distance while embedded in a clandestine protest betrays either a shocking lapse in judgment or a deliberate attempt to weaponize media access.
Americans who still believe in honest reporting should be furious, because this episode underscores the collapse of journalistic standards in much of the mainstream media. Don Lemon’s high-profile exit from CNN in 2023 had already tarnished his broadcasting credibility; this latest episode cements a pattern where celebrity pundits trade neutrality for activism.
Conservative leaders and ordinary churchgoers alike are rightly demanding accountability — not theater. Calls are already circulating for enforcement of existing laws that protect worship services, and patriots across the country should insist the DOJ follow through rather than letting a double standard persist when media personalities break the rules.
This moment should be a wake-up call: if we allow the cultural elites and their media allies to treat houses of worship as tactical targets, religious liberty itself will be the next casualty. The Department of Justice, local prosecutors, and every honest journalist must act now to restore order and send a message that faith communities are off-limits to political stunts.
