Today’s Live focused on the arrest of Don Lemon and several other journalists and activists in Minneapolis—and why this moment matters far beyond one protest. I walk through the basic facts of the arrests, why Don Lemon is almost certainly not going to jail, and why the DOJ’s track record shows these cases collapsing once they reach court. But that’s only the surface story.
The deeper issue is race. Every person arrested in connection with this protest has been Black. That is not incidental. It reflects what this ICE crackdown has always been about: intimidation, racial targeting, and silencing specific communities under the guise of “law enforcement.” This is not just an attack on migrants—it’s an attack on Black journalists, activists, and anyone documenting state violence.
I also push back on the idea that these arrests will “chill” the press. They won’t. Journalists aren’t scared, influencers aren’t backing down, and this administration is wildly miscalculating the response. If anything, these arrests expose the incompetence of an authoritarian movement that mistakes fear tactics for strength.
I close with something most media coverage is missing: a growing, coordinated legal effort at the local level to hold ICE agents accountable—and why this moment, despite the chaos, is not hopeless. It’s clarifying.
