The Friday cast of MS NOW’s Morning Joe collectively freaked out over the arrest of former CNN host Don Lemon for his role in a recent church storming in St. Paul, Minnesota. The panel would claim Lemon was arrested for simply “doing his job” and that he is just the “first target” of a federal government that resembles that of China, Russia, and Turkey.
Co-host and The Atlantic staff writer Jonathan Lemire sought to create the image of a pattern of behavior, but his evidence was underwhelming, “And let's remember, this also comes just a few weeks after the FBI searched a Washington Post reporter’s home. Took devices, took computers. And The Post was assured that the reporter herself was not a target of the investigation. It was one of her sources, but that was seen as a real crackdown on the freedom of the press.”
MS NOW's initial reaction to Don Lemon's arrest features Jonathan Lemire claiming Lemon was "arrested for doing his job." Legal analyst Lisa Rubin parrots that idea, saying Lemon is an "easy first target for a Department of Justice that wants to put journalists in fear of doing… pic.twitter.com/PrmaVvjm7J
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) January 30, 2026
Getting back to Lemon, Lemire continued, “I keep coming back to this, and the context here is that Don Lemon has been an enemy of the MAGA movement for quite some time. He's disliked by the Trump administration. That doesn't matter. What matters here is he was being a journalist who was doing his job and has now been arrested for doing his job.”
Legal reporter Lisa Rubin agreed, “Yeah. And the other thing, Jon, that I would add is that Don Lemon, and many people this morning observed this to me, is sort of an easy first mark. If your aim is to go after journalists for exercising their First Amendment rights, the rights that all four of us really cherish and our network cherishes, Don Lemon does not have the protection of a network behind him.”
Earlier in the segment, Rubin reported how Lemon is being charged under the FACE Act, which she claimed “folks who follow the reproductive justice movement” will be “very familiar with.”
That all-time euphemism for “abortion” provides context for the rest of Rubin’s proclamations of doom, “He does not work for a major corporation like Versant or any of the other major networks, or any of the major print publications. He is lacking that infrastructure and support right now, which makes him a very convenient and easy first target for a Department of Justice that wants to put journalists in fear of doing our jobs.
Lemire then turned to New York Times columnist Molly Jong-Fast, saying, “We only know about this stuff in Minnesota because the work of journalists and the work of civilians who were there with cameras, how important it is to document this, and it's going to potentially have a freezing effect on that.”
Jong-Fast then urged viewers to “think about the countries where journalists are targeted by the federal government — by their governments: Russia, China, Turkey, they're not democracies. I mean, this kind of thing, it's a shot across the bow, right, towards the free press. And it's scary.”
If Lemon conspired with the mob—which it appears he did—then he is just an activist with a camera, and, as we were all told during the Biden years, nobody is above the law.
Here is a transcript for the January 29 show:
MS NOW Morning Joe
1/30/2026
8:49 AM ET
JONATHAN LEMIRE: And let's remember, this also comes just a few weeks after the FBI searched a Washington Post reporter’s home—
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Yes.
LEMIRE: — on a national security matter.
BRZEZINSKI: And took computers.
LEMIRE: Took devices, took computers. And The Post was assured that the reporter herself was not a target of the investigation. It was one of her sources, but that was seen as a real crackdown on the freedom of the press, Lisa, and again, I keep coming back to this, and the context here is that Don Lemon has been an enemy of the MAGA movement for quite some time. He's disliked by the Trump administration. That doesn't matter. What matters here is he was being a journalist who was doing his job and has now been arrested for doing his job.
LISA RUBIN: Yeah. And the other thing, Jon, that I would add is that Don Lemon, and many people this morning observed this to me, is sort of an easy first mark. If your aim is to go after journalists for exercising their First Amendment rights, the rights that all four of us really cherish and our network cherishes, Don Lemon does not have the protection of a network behind him.
He does not work for a major corporation like Versant or any of the other major networks, or any of the major print publications. He is lacking that infrastructure and support right now, which makes him a very convenient and easy first target for a Department of Justice that wants to put journalists in fear of doing our jobs.
LEMIRE: And Molly, real quick, we also know this is—we only know about this stuff in Minnesota because the work of journalists and the work of civilians—
BRZEZINSKI: Right.
LEMIRE: — who were there with cameras, how important it is to document this, and it's going to potentially have a freezing effect on that.
MOLLY JONG-FAST: Well, and think about the countries where journalists are targeted by the federal government — by their governments: Russia, China, Turkey, they're not democracies. I mean, this kind of thing, it's a shot across the bow, right, towards the free press. And it's scary.
