Chapter 1: What recent legal decision impacts Don Lemon and press freedom?
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what a day uh first sort of business is to um hit the like and the thumbs up because it does affect the algorithm more people become aware of our show and our conversation here and they will tune in and they'll get to hear the real truth as we are telling it here on the don lemon show that we do every day we want people to be aware of what we do we may have to wake some folks up
And, you know, we may have to give some folks a reality check. We welcome the trolls. Lately, we've had a lot of trolls in the comments. And what the trolls don't realize is that they add to the numbers and the engagement into the show because it talks. The more people who are in the comment section, the more people who comment, the more people who hit the like and thumbs up all of it.
helps for the wellbeing and the health of this channel. So we welcome everyone, unless you're like a crazy troll and you keep doing stuff over and over, we're gonna let you speak, we're gonna let you speak. But anyways, like and thumbs up because it's very important. I do have a lot to say and I am gonna talk about it. I usually don't like to talk about this or myself in this manner.
And by the way, this is not like some sort of victory lap or anything like that, because I believe this is way more serious and there are broader implications. And if you watch this show to its completion today, you will understand what I mean, because I have people on who can talk about this, what it meant, what it means, and the danger of this going in to the future.
So let me just start out and tell you this before my preamble. This is a caveat to my preamble, is that I went to Minnesota to report. That was my mission to report. When I got there, my mission was to report. And when I got there, I reported. And that's what I did. as a reporter. I was not part of any protest group. I am not a protester. I said several times that I am not a protester.
I am a journalist. And so some people don't understand what that means. Maybe you don't have enough. Well, I know the Trump administration doesn't have a healthy respect for journalism or journalists because they attack journalists at every measure.
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Chapter 2: How does Don Lemon connect his reporting to the First Amendment?
Are you gonna go, we can't go over there and report this? Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? Journalists, I hope you're listening to me. I think that journalists need to stand up instead of capitulating. And that is the only way that we're gonna get past this moment. You do not capitulate to a bully. In this administration, they are bullies.
And so you have to introduce people to the word no. Now, again, this is not just about me. I'm talking about the broader context of this. And I'm going to bring some folks in to talk about that. But this is much bigger than me. We are at a very critical point in the history of this nation.
Look at what happens when dictators and authoritarians, look at what happens in Tehran and Iran, everywhere. When they want to become dictators or authoritarians and take over a country, what do they do? The first thing they do is get rid of the media. They shut off the radio. They have state-run TV. They have state-run radio. They have state-run newspapers.
And that's what's happening right now. Look at what happened at ABC with George Stephanopoulos. George Stephanopoulos talked about Donald Trump and E. Jean Carroll. Now, I mean, some people say maybe his structure wasn't right, but he quoted someone from the Washington Post where a judge said that it was akin to rape. The judge said that. And ABC paid tens of millions of dollars.
That's what a judge said from the Washington Post. People are afraid. This is a chill. They're trying to chill journalists. These people want you to report only the things that they want to report. And look, that is not my opinion. Those are the rules. That's the edict of the Defense Department.
Ask Pete Hegseth, who made journalists sign papers that they had to have what they were writing or going to release cleared. by the agency. Are you kidding me? Are you out of your mind? So news organizations, stop selling out your journalists. Let them report on the news. Stop trying to move the journalism in the direction of Republicans or MAGA or this administration.
And if you were trying to do it to the left, I would say the same thing, but that's not what's happening. Nobody's trying to move anything to the left. But you're trying to move things to the right. Not only is it unseemly, it's un-American. And you don't deserve to be a journalist or in the business of journalism if you do that. So, look, I stand proud and I stand tall.
This is not a victory lap for me because it's not over. They're going to try again and they're going to try again. And guess what? Here I am. keep trying. That's not going to stop me from being a journalist. You're not going to diminish my voice. Go ahead, make me into the new Jimmy Kimmel if you want. Just do it.
Because I'm not going anywhere and I'm going to believe the same things whether you want to, whatever. Now let me just tell you something else before I get to my guests. None of this is about justice. This is about power, and it's about people who are incompetent. It's not about justice. You know how I know it's not about justice?
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Chapter 3: What implications does the judge's ruling have for the Trump administration?
Who is this? I knew Scott Jennings when I was at CNN, but I don't know this person. What has happened to him? I don't watch CNN, so I don't know, but he is acting and putting on, it's ridiculous. Anyway, that's all I wanted to tell you guys. is, thank you for supporting me. Now, I want to go on and talk about what this means for other journalists.
And I think that we should support all independent journalists, independent media, and all reporters and journalists who are just doing their jobs. As a matter of fact, when I was in Minnesota, there were protesters who, they loved me, right, because I'm independent media. But these protesters were yelling at CBS News cameramen. And I stopped them and I said, don't yell at these guys.
They're not responsible for the ideology on their network. They're not responsible for the editorial bend on their network. They're out here with a camera shooting what's happening, chronicling what's happening, just like I am. And they need to feed their families and pay their bills. So why are you yelling at them? It doesn't make sense. So again, I will tell you the truth no matter what.
I went there to report. That was my mission. When I got there, my mission was to report. And when I was in the church and wherever, that is my mission to report, and that is what I did. Okay? That's it. I think I have some guests here, by the way. I've gone on and on. Producers, who do I have? Are they here now? Oh, Colby Hall is here. And Attorney Charles Coleman here as well.
Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you both for joining me. I didn't think I would go on that long. I was like, we should have the guest come on at 5.20 instead of 5.30 because I'm not going to talk for that long. But anyway, gentlemen, thank you so much.
Colby, I want to talk to you about the, well, first let me get some of the legal part of it and I will bring in, let me bring in Charles because I know Charles' time is limited and also Monique Presley is here and I want to bring Monique Presley in as well.
My legal minds, before we get to the implication about journalism, talk to me about this and what this means for the rule of law, actually for the First Amendment, et cetera. Why don't you go, Charles?
Well, Don, the first thing I say is I continue to talk about the fact that America's future is in the hands of the judiciary. And even where this administration seems to look past the rule of law, it is up to the judiciary to make sure that that rule of law is upheld. And so when you have a magistrate judge,
for our audiences who don't understand how this works, usually what happens is these sorts of warrants and other sorts of pleadings, whether it's a search warrant, an arrest warrant, they are brought to a magistrate judge. They are assigned to someone who is generally covering a miscellaneous part for the week. And that person will review the various sorts of pleadings that come before them.
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Chapter 4: How does Don Lemon's experience reflect on journalism today?
And I'm gonna take out my first amendment and read it to you. It says,
shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press or of the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for redress of grievances therefore nothing that was happening inside that church was a crime if they want to try to come up with a crime for protesting
If the folks who own the church want to charge trespass or something like that, you can litigate that. But the reality is the protests were constitutionally sound. The journalism was constitutionally sound. And the only reason that Pam Bondi's Department of Injustice has decided to try to prosecute you is probably because Donald Trump told her to.
And we no longer have a Justice Department because Pamela Joe, Pam Bondi, has decided that her job is not to pursue justice without fear or favor. Her job is to do whatever it is Donald Trump is telling her to do in the moment.
And whoever annoys Donald Trump or makes him angry or makes him sad or doesn't kiss his ass, she prosecutes them or attempts to prosecute them, to punish them for doing things he doesn't like. testimony before a congressional committee. And I watched Republicans attempt to spin the attack on the Capitol on January 6, January 6, 2021, as First Amendment protected free speech.
So what we're now saying is that hearing is that conservatives believe
that physically attacking the Capitol, hitting police officers like Michael Fanone with stun guns, bear spray, and baseball bats, defecating in the Capitol, smashing the windows of the Capitol, literally destroying the Capitol's edifice, that doing that is First Amendment protected free speech, slamming those officers in doorways,
beating them with their fists, nearly killing Mike Fanone, nearly killing other officers, injuring 140 police officers and leaving six people dead, that is protected free speech. but a protest in a church at which no one is harmed or killed and covering that protest as a journalist, that's a crime. We are in Putin Navalny territory. This is the way Russia operates.
It's the way North Korea and China operate. It is not supposed to be the way the United States of America operates.
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Chapter 5: What challenges do independent journalists face under current government actions?
There's a constitution in the First Amendment to freedom of speech and freedom to assemble and protest.
He's too dumb and doesn't know shit about the law or the U.S. Constitution.
People here don't like it, but protests are not comfortable.
Has no fucking clue what he is saying to that pastor there. You're going to learn the hard way, sir, how wrong you are.
Look, he's hugging his kid. I just imagine it's uncomfortable and traumatic for... The people here, that's what protesting is about.
You're too stupid to understand the law, but this one also happens to be illegal. You know how it's illegal to harass people as you show up at the abortion clinic? You're not allowed to do that. Well, guess what? That same law also applies to places of worship. There are some violations. very limited, but this is one of them, limits on your First Amendment rights.
This is the line beyond which we cannot allow them to cross. I don't care if it takes the National Guard, if it takes all of Pam Bondi's DOJ, if it takes President Trump personally making a visit to this church. I don't care what has to be done, but this is the red line and they've crossed it.
Woo, lady, calm down. I'm gonna say something that would tick people off. She'd be a lot prettier if she smiled. I'm kidding, I know that.
I will never forgive you for making me watch her, but anyway, come on.
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Chapter 6: How do various guests contribute to the conversation on press freedom?
My voice is scratchy. You know what I'm talking about. If anybody's going to get a screen grab of me, this is not tears of that at all. This is just my eyes watering for it. If you live in New York City and you have an old school radiator, you know what I'm talking about. It's so good. It's really dry. It's dry as hell. Does anybody want to say anything before we get out of here?
Can I just add one more thing on the idea of these protests? Because it is chilling. And I think whatever your politics are, whatever your political party is, you should be alarmed at the idea of your government attempting to use the highest sort of its awesome power of the state to stop people from protesting.
I'm old enough to remember when people showed up to protest against President Obama, our first Black president, with long guns, standing opposite the Capitol with long guns. And they were fully protected by the First Amendment to stand there in this threatening posture against the president of the United States. There was nothing you could do.
Up until the point where they broke into the Capitol, as much as I detest MAGA, those protests were perfectly legal, as they were screaming obscenities and chanting, hang Mike Pence. They were protected by the First Amendment up until the point where they started literally attempting to kill police officers.
When you think about the protests during the Tea Party movement, which were vile, they were holding monkey dolls and hanging an effigy, the first Black president of the United States. perfectly protected on the First Amendment. Understand the broad protections of the First Amendment, they don't just protect left, they protect the right too.
So if those of y'all in MAGA think you wanna live in a world where the Department of Justice can prosecute you for protesting because your protest is loud or because your protest annoys some people who are sitting in a building or your protest is inconvenient to people, rue the day. when there is a Trump on the other side who decides to wield the awesome power of the government against you.
Because anything you think you're satisfied with seeing done to your opponents can be done to you too. Everyone ought to oppose. I don't care what your politics are. You want to be really disturbed by the fact that this regime is acting like a regime, not an administration, and trying to use the awesome power of the federal government against one individual for simply witnessing a protest.
Thank you all I appreciate it. Thank you, Charles. Thank you, Aaron. Thank you, Joy. Thank you, Monique. Joy, you're on The Joy Reid Show live when? It's 6 o'clock. What are the days?
6 p.m. 6 to 8 p.m. We got to make sure y'all get your whole Don Lemon Lemonheads because the Lemonheads be jumping in our chats too. And we make sure that we are free and clear of The Don Lemon Show. So when Don's done, you can pop on over to thejoyreidshow.com and you can watch me from 6 to 8 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
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Chapter 7: What role does social media play in shaping public perception of journalism?
This was their response to it. So you see the two together like that. So that's not, you know, that's the same photo. But can we put the White House response to that where I think they said like more memes coming? Do we have that one or no? Now, yeah. Yet again, to the people who feel the need to reflexively defend perpetrators of heinous crimes in our country, I share with you this.
Enforcement of the law will continue. The memes will continue. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Not serious people. Immature. And even worse than that, dangerous. Dangerous. Um, let's see if there's anything else that I want to show here. Uh, I think that's pretty much it. What I want to show. Oh, just a couple of things.
Um, where I said that there were people who I believe defamed me, including the, my former colleague at CNN, which was, uh, what's his name? Uh, Scott Jennings. Um, but he kept saying, kept reporting today for a long, long time that the exact opposite of what happened with the justice department, but this is from the Charlie Kirk show. Watch.
Just getting breaking news here that Don Lemon has been charged. I'm looking into it, but he was not the first. He was not the first. I think, I think they'll probably have a good case on him. I mean,
he was in it he was he was and he was cheering it on and he tried to hide behind his journalistic okay breaking trump justice department charges journalist don lemon along with seven others over church protests aimed at ice uh let's see here i state ice agent wow There it is.
Even if he's not convicted, guys, even if he's not convicted, the process is the punishment, the legal fees, the worrying at night about, you know, about the charges that you're facing and the potential jail terms. So even if Lemon doesn't get doesn't get convicted.
um whatever i it's it's sort of looking it's like the same thing with james comey and leticia james sure those those indictments were thrown out um but hey at least we put them through some sort of process punishment
So the cruelty is the point. And you guys, for you people who sit around and listen to that garbage, that shit all day, not based in fact, it's just pure far right-wing bigoted ideology. I can see it's toxic. I can see why people are so angry. If you consume that all day, you'll be angry and aggrieved too for no reason. Now it's wrong. Is that a Richard Jewell kind of thing here for me?
Because they reported on it for a good long time. And that's probably still online. I wonder if they fixed it. And I wonder if Scott Jennings fixed it. I wonder if he apologized. But for a good long time, my attorneys were sitting here watching because there was a clip that showed up online from the Charlie Kirk show. And they were like, what the hell is going on with this?
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