For those who need a good laugh today, this one is for you.
Podcaster Don Lemon, who was recently arrested for his role in a protest that disrupted a church service in Minneapolis, said former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told him that he would become “the face of the First Amendment” in America.
During a recent episode on his YouTube channel, Lemon said Pelosi reached out to him after his arrest last week and told him, “Just stay strong and you will become the face of the First Amendment.”
This call came after he was released from federal custody on January 30.
Don Lemon tells Jimmy Kimmel he offered to self-report/turn himself into the DOJ, but heard nothing.
— LateNighter (@latenightercom) February 3, 2026
Instead, they came for him at a Grammys Week event. pic.twitter.com/DYrmatTuNI
Lemon was arrested on the same day while he was covering the Grammy Awards. He is facing charges related to his role in the January 18 protest in which dozens of people crashed a Sunday service at Cities Church in St. Paul. He, along with several others, faces charges of conspiracy against rights of religious freedom and violation of the FACE Act, a 1994 law prohibiting people from blocking entrances to abortion clinics, according to PBS.
The law also covers houses of worship. Prosecutors claim Lemon was aware of the protesters’ plans before the incident and that he “physically obstructed” church attendees who were trying to leave.
But Pelosi’s contention that Lemon will somehow represent the sanctity of the First Amendment is laughable given his previous statements showing he doesn’t give a rip about free speech or freedom of the press — at least not for people he doesn’t like.
Let me take you back to October 2021 when Don Lemon called for the government to regulate online speech and to punish people whose posts he decided were not accurate. “What is put on your platform, at the very least, should be true,” he said before CNN finally got sick of him and handed him his walking papers.
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“If we say something on this network that is not true, there are repercussions and ramifications, right?” he said. “We face the consequences. If you do that on social media, there are no consequences.”
Lemon also called for prohibiting people from creating anonymous accounts to express their opinions.
When Elon Musk released the Twitter Files shortly after buying the company, Lemon was livid because Musk did not hand the information over to establishment media outlets like CNN. He said the release was “not in the spirit of free speech.”
Of course, we know the real reason Lemon was upset was because left-leaning media outlets did not have the opportunity to selectively conceal information that might be damaging to the leftist movement. He complained about Musk playing the gatekeeper of the information because he wanted to be the gatekeeper.
Regardless of what one thinks about his arrest, Lemon is no warrior for the First Amendment. Like most partisan hacks, he applies his principles differently based on political affiliation.
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