Don Lemon is standing by his reporting after facing intense backlash following his coverage of an anti ICE protest that disrupted a church service in Minnesota over the weekend.
The former CNN host said he has been unfairly targeted after documenting demonstrators who interrupted a service at Cities Church in St. Paul, where Pastor David Easterwood is alleged to serve as acting field office director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minnesota.
Lemon shared footage of the protest on his independent YouTube channel. “I was cast as the face of a protest I was covering,” Don Lemon told Fox News Digital. He added that he has since received “a barrage of violent threats, along with homophobic and racist slurs.”
The controversy escalated after Nicki Minaj criticized Lemon on social media, calling him a “thug” and demanding his arrest. Lemon responded in a lengthy video, accusing Minaj of spreading misinformation and misunderstanding the situation.
“This is out of your depth,” he said, while maintaining that he had no affiliation with the protest organizers. “I didn’t even know they were going to that church until we followed them there.”
Lemon said he also received a warning from the U.S. Department of Justice, though he did not detail its contents.
Despite the backlash, Lemon says he has no regrets. “I was doing my job,” he said.