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.

Hyper-attuned to liberal sensitivities, Sunday’s New York Times featured race-beat reporter Clyde McGrady’s story “After Renee Good’s Killing, Some Conservatives Scorn Liberal Women.” The online headline deck: After Renee Good Killing, Derisive Term for White Women Spreads on the Far Right Vocal Trump supporters are demonizing Renee Good, her partner and their allies, with some even using an acronym: AWFUL, or Affluent White Female Urban Liberal.” Name-calling in politics! The horror. Given that the left wing has called every Republican presidential candidate a racist and/or Nazi, the sudden concern from an elitist outlet doesn’t cut much ice (or ICE). In the days since a federal agent killed Renee Good in Minneapolis, Republican officials and conservative commentators have called the 37-year-old white woman “very violent,” a “deranged lunatic woman” and a “domestic terrorist.” Some right-wing influencers have latched onto a different word — or rather an acronym: Ms. Good, they have said, was AWFUL. Another five-letter word that McGrady had trouble with is the name of a conservative radio host he cited: It’s “Erick,” not “Erik.” “An AWFUL (Affluent White Female Urban Liberal) is dead after running her car into an ICE agent who opened fire on her,” the conservative commentator Erik Erickson posted on social media. “Progressive whites are turning violent. ICE agents have the right to defend themselves.” From a co-host on an AM radio show in Orlando, Pierce Outlaw, to an army of internet trolls, the acronym has taken off…. McGrady is on the paper’s “race” beat, so of course he made a ludicrous leap from conservatives criticizing privileged white radicals to the racist carnival barker Nick Fuentes. Liberal white women are only the latest group to be on the receiving end of right-wing animus. In late October and November, as Tucker Carlson offered a friendly interview to the Holocaust-denying white nationalist Nick Fuentes, the fear among some conservatives was that attacking Jews was inching toward the mainstream of the Republican Party…. McGrady performed some impressive ideological contortions to make the “AWFUL” appellation – which, let us emphasize, criticizes white women -- about white supremacy and the Charlottesville march. But for the broader core of Mr. Trump’s followers, the description of white, urban women as violent radicals obstructing mass deportations seems to reflect older anxieties around race, gender and immigration among the white, non-college educated men who make up the core of Mr. Trump’s movement and perceive their place in society slipping, said Dr. Shauna Shames, a political scientist at Rutgers and co-editor of the book The Right Women: Republican Party Activists, Candidates, and Legislators. "Shauna Shames" sounds like a cartoon name for a liberal professor sounding off in a so-called "era of creeping tyranny."  The reporter finally acknowledged a slice of reality, noting that "Karen" is a bipartisan insult, and quoting Erickson again: “Good had been harassing ICE agents much of the day,” he wrote, continuing, “Good had been involved in a progressive activist group called ICE Watch that encouraged not just obstruction of ICE, but also something they call ‘de-arrest,’ which means helping detained illegal immigrants escape.” It is not clear how deeply Ms. Good or her partner were involved in the organized protests that have greeted immigration agents in Minnesota. And while administration officials have claimed that she was violent or mentally ill, that description bears no resemblance to the person relatives and neighbors said they knew. Liberal academics have been diagnosing what they see as the problem. Laura K. Field, author of the book Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right, said social, demographic and economic changes had left men with a sense that they have lost status. While we’re on the psychiatrist couch, why not mention how leftists relish “white women’s tears” and also attack liberal white women, for engaging in white supremacy under the guise of feminism? And if “AWFUL” is so awful, what about “weird” and “creepy”? During the 2024 presidential campaign, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) gained media plaudits and eventually the Vice President candidate slot by calling the Republican candidates Donald Trump and J.D. Vance (and by extension their supporters) “weird” and “creepy.” The Times wasn’t traumatized by that insult of white men. In fact the paper considered it a psychological masterstroke. Reporter Ernesto Londono praised “weird” with co-author Adam Nagourney in “Tim Walz’s Extraordinarily Ordinary Life.” With his broad smile and unpolished style, it was the Minnesota governor — more than any other Democrat — who was able to conceive and deliver Democrats’ new favorite attack on Mr. Trump and his party: that they are “creepy” and “weird as hell.”

“Is Margaret Brennan stupid or does she just really hate facts?” the White House’s official “Rapid Response” team asked on X.com Sunday after CBS’s Brennan told DHS Sec. Kristi Noem’s she was wrong about DHS arrests of criminal illegal aliens. On Sunday’s “Face the Nation,” Host Margaret Brennan tried to refute the Department of Homeland Security secretary’s observation that 70% of the illegal aliens arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during the second Trump Administration have been criminals. Seven in ten of those who have been arrested by ICE aren’t people who simply broke U.S. immigration law, Sec. Noem explained to Brennan: “Every single individual has committed a crime, but 70% of them have committed or have charges against them on violent crimes, and crimes that they are charged with or have been convicted of that have come from other countries that are here illegally, first of all, and then they have committed a criminal act while they've been here or in their home countries, as well.” “Well, our reporting is that 47%, based on your agency's own numbers, 47% have criminal convictions against them,” Brennan said, trying to claim that DHS’s “own numbers” belie Noem’s 70% statistic. But, Brennan was actually citing her own network’s numbers incorrectly: Sec. Noem was referring to arrests of illegal aliens nationwide during Pres. Trump’s second term in office. Per CBS, Brennan’s statistic refers to all illegal aliens currently in detention who were arrested at any time in the past. Sec. Noem was citing the percentage of illegal aliens arrested who were convicted of, or charged with, crimes – either in the U.S. or in other countries. Per CBS, Brennan’s statistic is for illegal aliens currently in detention – but only those actually convicted of crimes committed in the U.S. – thus excluding those convicted/charged in other countries and those with outstanding charges in the U.S. As a CBS News article updated on Friday explained: “In a statement to CBS News, DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said 70% of those arrested by ICE under the second Trump administration — not those currently in the agency's custody — have criminal charges or convictions in the U.S. She said those listed as ‘immigration violators’ could have criminal histories abroad or terrorism ties.” “You guys keep changing your percentage,” Sec. Noem told CBS’s Brennan, promising to continue telling the American public the truth about the dangers of illegal immigration in the face of Brennan’s efforts to distort facts in order to attack enforcement of the nation’s immigration laws: “You pick and choose what numbers you think work, but that is the fact, is that 70% of the people that we have detained have charges against them or have been convicted of charges and they need to be brought to justice. “And we're going to keep doing that no matter how much you guys keep lying and don't tell the public the truth.”   President Trump and I will always PROTECT Americans. This administration is committed to arresting and deporting the worst of the worst from America's communities. 70% of those arrested by ICE are convicted criminals or have criminal charges. This includes murderers, pedophiles,… pic.twitter.com/JDFBaAjuF5 — Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) January 18, 2026

It’s time to find out who had the Worst Media Take of the Week. This interactive series is where you — our loyal NewsBusters visitors and MRC supporters — get to vote on which leftist journalist or celebrity had the worst media take of the week.   Much appreciation to all who voted last week via NewsBusters and the MRC’s various social media sites (Facebook, Instagram and X.com).   The results of the Worst Media Take of the Week are in and the winner is… Jimmy Kimmel! The host of ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! won with 46 percent of the vote. Kimmel took first place for calling President Donald Trump a “maniac” who is killing people overseas and in Minneapolis. Former ESPN and MSNBC host Keith Olbermann came in second place with 33 percent. Finishing last was former CNN anchor Don Lemon at 21 percent.  The following clip is MRC president David Bozell’s introduction of the nominees:       WINNER (46 percent of the vote)   Jimmy Kimmel: “Maniac” Trump Is Killing People Overseas and in Minneapolis  “They’re trying out a new slogan: ‘Donald J. Trump is gonna kill you!’ Pretty good, right? This maniac, he isn’t just killing people overseas. An ICE agent today shot and killed an unarmed 37-year-old woman during an ICE operation in Minneapolis, who were there under the guise of protecting us….Now that is the shirt I want to see, to ICE, ‘Get the [bleep] out of Minneapolis.” Get the [bleep] out of all these cities.”— Host Jimmy Kimmel on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, January 7.   SECOND PLACE (33 percent of the vote)   Keith Olbermann: Trump’s “Gestapo” Committed Terrorist Act to “Feed” His “Sadistic, Blood-Lusting, Psychotic” Base  “This is Trump’s terrorism. This is the Kent State of our time. The peaceful, unarmed protestor murdered by Trump’s ICE. While Trump’s lie-factory and Trump personally smeared her, blamed her. Made up a story or a threat where there was no threat. Altered images, lied about her, lied about what the Gestapo did. The Gestapo they sent to kill Americans in American cities, in order to make videos to feed the sadistic, blood-lusting psychotics who support Trump. And if you support this, if you support Trump, if you countenance this on our streets against citizens or non-citizens or police or anybody, you are a sadistic blood-lusting psychotic! That is Donald Trump’s base!”— Former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann on his Countdown podcast, January 8.   THIRD PLACE (21 percent of the vote)   Don Lemon to ICE Agents: F**k Off, You Dumb Jack-Booted Nazis!  “F**k off, ICE! F**k all the way off! You are low-life losers. And you feel empowered by your dear leader, Donald Trump….You are treating people in an inhumane way and you don’t even understand why because you’re too dumb to figure it out. You are the poorly educated that Donald Trump loves….You’re out there doing his bidding, doing things that are illegal, doing things that are unconstitutional, doing things that are inhumane, like killing someone….You are fat fuck losers who just crawled out of a trailer park from some Proud Boy meeting….You are thugs, jack-booted thugs….You stupid, dumb, ignorant, poorly educated, Proud Boys, Nazis marching through.”— Former CNN anchor Don Lemon on The Don Lemon Show podcast, January 9.   Thanks again to all who participated!    Sponsored by James P. Jimirro

On Monday's CNN This Morning, senior CNN reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere decided to malign the National Guard acting on orders of CNN's least favorite president:  "Just yesterday, I was walking around Washington. Of course, we've had National Guard deployment here for months, and it's been extended. And just troops with their weapons out, walking the streets, four of them at a time, walking around. It didn't seem like doing really much of anything, except that we are now being made used to every day more troops on the streets of more American cities.  Did it occur to Dovere that not much was going on BECAUSE they were walking around? Crime is significantly down in DC since the deployment began! This is similar to the people who complain that too many criminals are incarcerated, given that crime is down. Crime is down in large part because we have imprisoned more criminals--hello? So what's next, Dovere? Are you going to suggest that the heating system in the CNN building should be dismantled, since even on this frosty morning, it's warm inside? Dovere's parody-worthy comment came in the context of a discussion of possible plans to send more federal troops to Minneapolis because they're needed to guard the agents whose actions are being impeded by protesters.  According to Dovere: "It goes all the way around in a circle, and really what we're seeing is just more militarization of American cities."  But surely Dovere has witnessed the scenes of protesters blocking ICE agents with vehicles, getting in their face, screaming, blowing whistles, etc., making it more difficult for them to do their job of detaining a targeted person. What might take 4-6 people to do the job if left unmolested could now take twice that number: the core people carrying out the detention, and the others fending off protesters trying to "de-arrest" the detainee. Notice that Dovere never brought up that two National Guardsmen were shot in D.C. in November. Right after it happened, CNN analyst Andrew McCabe also maligned the Guard: "But these are folks who basically been thrown into a pseudo law enforcement function, most of whom don't really have law enforcement backgrounds. And that adds, I think a real wild card element to this this thing. We don't really know how those folks would respond if confronted with a violent incident on the street with an armed person." The Guard drew more scorn than the shooter!  PS: Dovere came to CNN from The Atlantic, where he promoted his magazine’s sleazy partisan story claiming that Trump mocked our war dead as losers. At a presser, Dovere was awarded the first question and he asked Biden about the dreadful state of Donald Trump’s soul: Khizr Khan said the comments demonstrated that President Trump's life is a testament to selfishness, and his soul is that of a coward. You've talked about this as a different view of how you see the job as president. But when you hear these remarks -- suckers, losers, recoiling from amputees -- what does it tell you about the president's soul and the life he leads?" Here's the transcript. CNN This Morning 1/10/26 6:17 am ET ERICA HILL: There was so much talk, and I would say, certainly at the end of last week, and we heard from officials, right, in Minnesota saying, don't give them these pictures don't in their work, the administration, rather, these images, this is what they want, to your point, for the Insurrection Act.  The way that this is playing out, though, in a fairly small city, right, with, in the grand scheme of things, perhaps a smaller number of undocumented immigrants, is this having the reaction politically that was hoped for?  ISAAC DOVERE: You see in the polls that people seem to be, by a majority of them, uncomfortable with what's going on and disapprove of it.  I do think this goes beyond the political side of it. I mean, even just the words that we're using here: what counts as victory, right? This is the American president, what he wants to get done in an American city. And that's because of the militarization that's happened here and the pretext that keeps shifting the rationales, that keep going back, that now we might need to have the Alaska Airborne there to protect the ICE agents, but the ICE agents need to be there because of the fraud. It goes all the way around in a circle, and really what we're seeing is just more militarization of American cities.  I mean, even just yesterday, I was walking around Washington. Of course, we've had National Guard deployment here for months, and it's been extended. And just troops with their weapons out, walking the streets, four of them at a time, walking around. It didn't seem like doing really much of anything, except that we are now being made used to every day more troops on the streets of more American cities.