{"id":451318,"date":"2026-02-03T14:22:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T14:22:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/451318\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T14:22:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T14:22:06","slug":"kerry-kennedy-on-don-lemon-arrest-and-threats-facing-journalists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/451318\/","title":{"rendered":"Kerry Kennedy on Don Lemon Arrest and Threats Facing Journalists"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe recent arrest<\/a> of Don Lemon<\/a> should alarm every American who still believes in the First Amendment.<\/p>\n

\n\tLemon was taken into custody last week after entering Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, and filming anti-immigration enforcement protesters who disrupted a worship service. He now faces charges<\/a> of conspiracy to deprive rights and interfering with religious freedoms for doing his work as a journalist. Standing outside court after his release, Lemon was unequivocal: \u201cI will not be silenced.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThose words should not have to be said in the United States of America.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor decades, I have denounced governments that use \u201cpublic order\u201d and \u201cnational security\u201d as excuses to repress dissent. In the authoritarian playbook used by dictators and wannabe dictators, one of the first steps is to go after journalists, to criminalize anyone who is documenting the reality on the ground. If you arrest and therefore silence the witness, you control the narrative.<\/p>\n

\n\tLemon\u2019s arrest is not just about one journalist or one protest inside one church. It is about how the Trump administration is dragging this United States toward the same dark pattern we condemn abroad.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis administration is decimating the democratic norms that safeguard our republic, and is treating the rule of law not as a sacred trust but as an obstacle to personal power. With policies designed to silence, punish, and exclude, it has violated fundamental rights, including those of voters, women, LGBTQ people, and protestors. Lemon\u2019s arrest unfolded amid intensifying federal immigration operations in Minnesota that have sparked deadly confrontations. Protesters inside the church were chanting \u201cJustice for Renee Good,\u201d after she was fatally shot during a confrontation with an ICE officer in Minneapolis last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis administration is decimating the democratic norms that safeguard our republic, and is treating the rule of law not as a sacred trust but as an obstacle to personal power.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kerry Kennedy<\/p>\n

\n\tThe atmosphere was already combustible. And Lemon did what journalists do: he showed up to report on the unfolding chaos. When he livestreamed the event on YouTube, Lemon repeatedly stated on camera: \u201cWe\u2019re not part of the activists. We\u2019re here just reporting on them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tReasonable people can debate the boundaries between reporting and participation. But no reasonable democracy responds to that debate by sending federal agents to arrest a journalist \u201cin the middle of the night,\u201d as Lemon described, while he was across the country in Los Angeles covering the Grammy Awards.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat is not accountability. That is not the rule of law. That is pure and simple intimidation. One that seeks to create a chilling effect on the media and is consistent with the larger pattern of President Trump describing the press as \u201cthe enemy of the American people.\u201d This dangerous rhetoric, long used by authoritarian leaders to delegitimize scrutiny and dissent, have been a hallmark of Trump\u2019s attacks on independent journalism<\/a> since his first presidential term.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tPresident Trump and other senior officials have repeatedly targeted the press and independent voices, calling CNN \u201cfake news,\u201d attempting to revoke reporter Jim Acosta\u2019s White House press pass, and encouraging crowds to jeer at journalists at rallies.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe administration also tried to block the publication of Michael Wolff\u2019s Fire and Fury, criticized reporters such as Katy Tur and Maggie Haberman, and instrumentalized the Justice Department to obtain phone records of journalists from The Washington Post and The New York Times. Daily White House press briefings were largely curtailed, Pentagon press credentials were revoked in some cases, expert voices were sidelined, and inspectors general who exposed internal wrongdoing were dismissed.<\/p>\n

\n\tA couple of months ago, on Air Force One, when he did not like a question from Bloomberg journalist Catherine Lucey about the Epstein files, Trump reportedly said, \u201cQuiet! Quiet, piggy.\u201d Days later, he used demeaning language to insult another female White House journalist, calling her \u201cugly, both inside and out.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\tThese actions have created an atmosphere in which challenging questions are treated as disloyalty and satire is treated as a form of opposition politics. An emblematic example of how even comedians are not safe from presidential retaliation is Trump\u2019s personal attacks against Stephen Colbert on national television, calling him \u201cno\u2011talent\u201d and \u201cfilthy,\u201d and then approving the CBS parent company merger with Paramount, after which CBS announced it would end The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBut what makes the crackdown so effective is the erosion of any semblance of independence from our top law enforcement officials. Attorney General Pam Bondi accused Lemon and others of participating in a \u201ccoordinated attack,\u201d and FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed that their arrests were carried out by both FBI and DHS investigators.<\/p>\n

\n\tHarmeet Dhillon of the DOJ\u2019s Civil Rights Division went even further, declaring: \u201cWe\u2019re going to pursue this to the ends of the earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe White House, meanwhile, appeared to celebrate Lemon\u2019s arrest, posting his photo on its official X account with the caption: \u201cwhen life gives you lemons,\u201d alongside chain-link imagery.<\/p>\n

\n\tMockery is not governance. It is a warning.<\/p>\n

\n\tLemon was not the only one arrested. Independent journalist Georgia Fort was also taken into custody, livestreaming federal agents arriving at her home as her children watched. Trahern Jeen Crews and Jamael Lydell Lundy were arrested at the protest, as well.<\/p>\n

\n\tEven more alarming: Prosecutors first pursued charges against eight individuals, but a magistrate judge only approved charges for three of them, excluding Lemon. The Trump administration then escalated the case to a grand jury, which ended up indicting nine defendants, this time including Lemon.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis, together with the recent FBI search of a Washington Post reporter\u2019s home, where devices were seized despite no charges being filed, is intended to send an unmistakable message: we can come for you.<\/p>\n

\n\tDon Lemon\u2019s arrest is a test for our country. Will we accept a future where journalists in the United States are hauled away in handcuffs for covering dissent? Or will we defend the principle that the press exists precisely to shine light into moments of conflict?<\/p>\n

\n\tBecause let\u2019s all be clear about one thing: when a journalist is arrested for doing their job, democracy is the one in handcuffs.<\/p>\n

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\n\tKerry Kennedy is president of the Robert & Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center<\/a>. A human rights activist and lawyer, she authored New York Times best seller Being Catholic Now, as well as Speak Truth to Power and Robert F. Kennedy: Ripples of Hope.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The recent arrest of Don Lemon should alarm every American who still believes in the First Amendment. Lemon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,81834,75,5979],"class_list":["post-451318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrities","tag-don-lemon","tag-entertainment","tag-journalism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}