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Spicer, Former WashPost Reporter SLAM Don Lemon’s Minneapolis Stunt with Anti-ICE Mob
On Monday morning’s The Huddle, our friend and co-host Sean Spicer teamed with fellow co-hosts Rachael Bade and Democratic strategist Dan Turrentine to slam disgraced former CNN host Don Lemon for tagging along with an anti-Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) mob to disrupt Sunday services at Minneapolis-based City Church based on a claim someone from ICE worked there.
After scoffing at Lemon’s insistence this was “a clandestine mission” by activists, Bade played video of Lemon’s exchange with the pastor in which he lectured the reverend for not “loving” the mob and respecting the “Constitution and the First Amendment to freedom of speech and freedom to assemble and protest.”
Bade — who worked for The Washington Post and Politico (and was a one-time CNN political analyst) before going independent last year — was aghast and didn’t mince words:
.@TheDCHuddle host/former Washington Post and Politico reporter @RachaelMBade on Don Lemon tagging along with the anti-ICE mob to storm a Minneapolis church... pic.twitter.com/rt4T4uRXVi
“There is a difference between being a journalist following along to cover a protest, cover…
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 20, 2026
Spicer agreed, starting with the fact that “he’s not a journalist,” which Bade said was “totally fair given what” Lemon was saying.
Spicer then backed the proverbial truck up, slamming Lemon as “a disrespectful POS” and “an activist” who’s “always…been” this way, adding disrupting people “worshipping God” under the guise of the Constitution “is one of the lowest, most disgusting things I’ve ever seen in my life.”
He went onto excoriate this “disgusting and inappropriate and wrong” behavior by Lemon but also the lack of “equal outrage” on the left for this was astounding (click “expand”):
[Y]ou don’t have a right. That’s just not true, okay? And for him to say I have a right to be here, it’s a First Amendment, like — it’s so disgusting and inappropriate and wrong. The idea that there’s not more outrage and that it’s a right-leaning issue is just what’s wrong. The idea that there’s not equal outrage — again by saying no, there’s a line, you crossed it, you’re wrong, is so what’s going on right now.
The idea that people that — that this is not getting coverage anywhere else is literally what’s wrong right now. I — I just — I’m so disgusted by that — and that this guy’s going to become some kind of a hero to the left because he stormed in the middle of a church service and — and accosted the pastor and then said, “I have a right to be here and I’m a Christian.” I — I literally — I — I — I actually will pray for that dude today and hope to God that — that God comes down to him and says, “you’re a moron. Don’t ever do this again. Atone for your sins.”
Turrentine then jumped in and noted that “the doors of a church are open,” so anyone “can walk in” and thus “[i]t is a terrible look to interrupt a church service, just like it’s a terrible look to interrupt a classroom.”
“[P]eople go there to kind of seek relief, to seek inspiration, to, you know, to make peace literally and figuratively. So, I — I — I think it is a terrible look. I think the average person who goes to church on Sunday looks at that and thinks, if that happened in my community at my church, I would be upset, right? Full stop,” he added.
Turrentine zoomed out by tying Lemon’s antics to the rise of man-on-the-street YouTube-based personalities and journalists (click “expand”):
TURRENTINE: I think, from a media standpoint, what I think you’re seeing with Don Lemon is we — we’ve talked about this, like, kind of journalist these independent journalists on the street with their camcorders kind of trying to make news. I’m sure he wants — he wants imagery. He wants, you know, the — the — the pastor criticizing ICE to take it and say, “see, look, the pastor,” and I — I know there was the opposite. They think the pastor is part — was part of ICE or is part of ICE. It’s — it’s crazy. I — I mean, all of this is just this feeling of both sides trying to get the other. I hear a lot of Democrats who would tell you that they wish, like, the Pope and others who have spoken out about what’s happening on immigration, that this is not how you treat people, not what the Bible tells you about how to treat people. So, you know, everyone’s trying to get their aha moment on camera.
SPICER: But — but wait. Just — I — I just want to put this out as a PSA in case Don’s listening. If you come to my church, I will not react the same way that pastor did. I will spend Monday in confession atoning for my sins for what I will do. Just for the record. But I — I —
TURRENTINE: You’re like the dad in Landman who’s like, this is how I would have handled it.
SPICER: — but — but I will say that what — what — what — what upsets me on this whole thing is that, like, this — this treat people the — if you don’t like what ICE is doing, change the law. Don’t have —
TURRENTINE: Well, but Sean, hold on. It — here’s the thing, though, you got to be careful about. You have instances now where ICE has stopped people — the people have said, “Hey, I’m an American citizen.” And they’re like, “where are your papers? Where are your papers?” And the person’s like, “hey, okay, wait, hold on a sec. I don’t —” And these people with whistles and other things start pointing and the ICE agents have basically peeled out. On the left, what they’re saying is, “oh, that’s not lawful what they were starting to do, and that’s why they ran away.” Now, I hear you. This is why it’s spinning out of control, right? Because everyone is looking to get the other side. You’re doing something you’re not supposed to be doing. I hate that now you have these people walking around with cellphone cameras hunting for wrongdoing almost trying to cause wrongdoing.
SPICER: But — but — but —
TURRENTINE: That’s where — the left is saying —
SPICER: — okay.
TURRENTINE: — enough.
Bade also teed off on the general vitriol toward ICE agents: “But it’s also — but it’s also, like, directing — directing the fire and the anger at ICE officials or people with — tied to ICE who are just following orders. Like, there’s these civil servants who are following orders.”
Spicer replied social media provocateurs like Lemon are “creating the very chaos that they’re then denouncing” and also have “suddenly cared about ICE agents being masked” when they had “no problem with…hoodlums walking around with masks accosting people.”
As they were taping live on Monday morning, Bade wondered: “Have any Democrats come out and said, ‘let’s not storm churches?’ You know, like, I haven’t seen a single one.”
Before moving onto a story about President Trump’s interview last week with CBS News, Spicer and Turrentine forecast the political implications of these hijinks going forward if they were to continue (click “expand”):
TURRENTINE: [W]hen you had the members of Congress trying to, you know, break into the ICE facilities. I mean, there is — I — I agree. this is where, as Democrats, when — when we were in the headlines in the spring for this stuff, the Trump team was winning because we looked unreasonable and out of control. Now, when the headlines are, you know, massive weaponry knocking on doors, the administration looks out of control. It is — this race to — neither side feels like they can back down.
SPICER: Well, I said this last week and I’ll just say it again because this started with our side being all fired up about Minnesota fraud. We were on the high ground. We’re going in and then I agree, perception-wise, it didn’t look good how it played out, like, in terms of what’s going on — on — on television screens in the morning. But I think that this is another this goes back now. This is that moment where does storming a church in the middle of a Sunday service reflect well? And — and again, no one on the Democratic party saying, “hey, this is wrong. Don Lemon’s a clown.” I haven’t heard, you know, is this now going to pinball back the other way?
To see the relevant transcript from The Huddle on January 19, click here.
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