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Network Newscasts Downplay Minneapolis Church Incursion
On Sunday, former CNN anchor Don Lemon joined an anti-ICE protest group that stormed a Minneapolis church, disrupting the service and in the process violating worshippers’ right to freely exercise their religion as protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. You would think that the Elitist Media, self-styled custodians and keepers of the First Amendment flame, would be all over this story. But alas, the best the network evening news could muster were pro-forma mentions.
ABC’s World News Tonight devoted a measly 19 seconds to the Minnesota church incursion. Here is that fragment:
ABC World News Tonight devotes 19 seconds of a 2+ minute A-block report to the Minneapolis church incursion: the rest of their Minny roundup was devoted to anti-ICE agitprop pic.twitter.com/3CDBAAZSLr
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) January 20, 2026
PROTESTERS: Renee Good!
MATT RIVERS: After anti-ICE protesters disrupted this Sunday service, the Justice Department says it's now investigating.
PASTOR: Shame on you! This is a house of God.
RIVERS: Protesters targeting the church because one of the pastors is also the director of an ICE field office.
The tone was set by anchor David Muir, who framed the investigation as an outrage:
Demonstrators interrupting a church service where one of the pastors is also an ICE official. The Justice Department tonight saying it will now investigate the protesters.
Left unsaid…”while not investigating the ICE agent that shot the Minneapolis mom who totally didn’t hit him with her vehicle causing internal bleeding.” The report briefly opens with a mention of a potential Insurrection Act deployment, goes into the aforementioned church incursion mention, and then closes out with multiple mentions of law enforcement actions maliciously framed as ICE malfeasance.
The CBS Evening News took a similar tack and a similar deemphasis of the church incursion:
The CBS Evening News devotes just under 14 seconds to the Minneapolis church incursion pic.twitter.com/WsBC6wc2N8
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) January 20, 2026
IAN LEE: The Justice Department late today said it will consider federal charges against anti-ICE protesters who interrupted a church service in St. Paul on Sunday, where they accuse one of the pastors of working with ICE.
The briefs are totally protester-coded in that they only mention the associate pastor’s employment as an ICE officer. There is never any discussion of the civil rights violations incurred here, or the severity of the charges- whether under the FACE ACT, Conspiracy Against Rights, or the Ku Klux Klan Act which may serve as the basis of the prosecution of the never-mentioned Don Lemon.
None of that is mentioned in these tiny briefs meant to deemphasize for viewers. The intent seemed pretty clearly to say as little as possible as quickly as possible before getting back to the business of framing ICE in the worst possible way.
(NBC did not air the Nightly News due to NBA commitments.)
Click “expand” to view the full transcripts of the aforementioned reports as aired on their respective newscasts on Monday, January 19th, 2026:
ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT
DAVID MUIR: In the meantime, to the tense scene tonight in Minneapolis, 1,500 active duty U.S. troops have now been put on standby to potentially be sent in by President Trump. Demonstrators interrupting a church service where one of the pastors is also an ICE official. The Justice Department tonight saying it will now investigate the protesters. ABC’s Matt Rivers, from Minneapolis again tonight.
MATT RIVERS: Tonight 1,500 active duty soldiers are on alert for possible deployment to Minnesota, Those troops just on standby for now. But the city of Minneapolis remains on edge.
PROTESTERS: Renee Good!
RIVERS: After anti-ICE protesters disrupted this Sunday service, the Justice Department says it's now investigating.
PASTOR: Shame on you! This is a house of God.
RIVERS: Protesters targeting the church because one of the pastors is also the director of an ICE field office.
DHS says roughly 3,000 undocumented immigrants have been arrested during this crackdown in Minneapolis, including violent criminals. Agents storming this home, the family of the man living there says they terrorized his 5-year-old grandson, and never asked for ID before pulling him out in his underwear into the bitter cold- releasing him an hour later. DHS says the man lived with two sex offenders they are still looking for. But his family disputes that, saying he only lives with relatives, and none are sex offenders. New tonight, allegations that some detained by ICE were denied access to legal counsel. Including protester William Vermey, a U.S. citizen, seen here being arrested after filming ICE officers right outside his house. He says he was detained for more than 8 hours, and not allowed to see an attorney.
WILLIAM VERNEY: We're entitled to counsel, it's part of the Bill of Rights. Even if you're here illegally.
RIVERS: Four different attorneys tell ABC News they were not granted access to detained migrants, despite a constitutional obligation for legal counsel.
Why sit here and talk to me? Why go public?
VERMEY: I have privilege. I’m a combat vet, I’m white, I’m middle class. If I can’t advocate for people who need it, then who else is going to do it? Who else is going to stand up and speak truth to power?
RIVERS: And David, as protests press on here in Minneapolis, DHS denies blocking access to legal counsel for anyone in its custody and says that anyone they detain receives access to full due process rights. David.
MUIR: All right. Matt Rivers in Minneapolis. Matt, thank you.
CBS EVENING NEWS
TONY DOKOUPIL: Now to Minnesota where the largest operation in the history of the Department of Homeland Security is expected to grow even larger. Officials say their primary target is undocumented immigrants who’ve committed crimes in the Twin Cities area. Ian Lee is in St. Paul with the latest, including the potential involvement of U.S. troops.
IAN LEE: A U.S. Defense official tells CBS News 1500 active-duty soldiers in Alaska are on standby waiting for possible deployment to Minneapolis after President Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act.
DONALD TRUMP: If I needed it, I'd use it. It's very powerful.
LEE: This weekend we saw anti-ICE demonstrators clash with pro-ICE demonstrators and ICE agents. In the middle of it all was far-right organizer Jake Lange, a pardoned January 6th defendant.
LEE: Why are you out here today?
JAKE LANGE: The replacement of white Americans of Somalians in Minnesota is a tragedy.
LEE: The Justice Department late today said it will consider federal charges against anti-ICE protesters who interrupted a church service in St. Paul on Sunday, where they accuse one of the pastors of working with ICE.
This federal building has been a flash point between protesters and federal agents, and over the weeks, as we have seen tensions go up, we've seen these barriers go up essentially turning this detention center into a fortress.
PROTESTER: That's what people here are responding to more than anything else is they are not going to be intimidated.
LEE: You don't feel intimidated?
PROTESTER: Not at all.
LEE: While these protests are not as widespread as those for George Floyd, the issue is still felt deeply in the community.
PROTESTER: A lot of the things that people are doing are walking people who are going home from their jobs and don't feel safe going home, they are walking them to their cars. There are people out there delivering food to people who don't feel safe going to the grocery store.
LEE: I spoke with one immigrant family who says they don't go outside for fear of arrest. Meanwhile, the Department of Justice has filed a notice of its intent to appeal a ruling by a federal judge on Friday that blocks law enforcement in Minnesota from arresting peaceful protesters. Tony.
DOKOUPIL: Ian Lee for us. Ian, thank you very much.
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