‘Morning Joe’ Says Don Lemon, Georgia Fort Arrests Are Trump’s ‘Dangerous Message to Working Journalists’ | Video

“Morning Joe” condemned federal authorities’ arrests Friday of former CNN anchor Don Lemon and independent Minneapolis reporter Georgia Fort, telling MS NOW viewers they send a “dangerous message to working journalists.”

“This is not unique to Don Lemon,” MS NOW senior contributing editor Michele Norris said, referencing Fort’s arrest, which she live-streamed Friday as federal agents knocked on her door. Like Lemon, Fort was arrested for covering and filming an orchestrated, anti-ICE protest at a Twin Cities church earlier this month. Lemon is facing charges of both conspiracy to deprive rights and violating the FACE Act.

Members of the Department of Justice, including U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, have argued that the protest impeded on church attendees’ federally protected right to religious worship. Lemon has maintained that his coverage of the protest was protected by his Constitutional rights as a journalist. He and Fort were, nonetheless, among four individuals arrested Friday in connection with the demonstration. 

MS NOW legal reporter Lisa Rubin said Friday on “Morning Joe” that she does not believe Lemon did anything to suggest he actually used “force” to impede on the churchgoers’ rights. “At best, there is an allegation that a number of people whose names are redacted cornered the pastor,” Rubin acknowledged. “Now, we’ve seen that footage [of] Don Lemon engaged in a conversation with that pastor. Is he talking to him closely? Yes.”

“Is he asking him some difficult questions as the situation grows a little bit more heated? Certainly. Is that what a judge, or better a jury, would consider the use of force or even threatening force? I don’t think so,” Rubin continued. “This is one of those situations where they want you to believe certain facts, but don’t disbelieve your eyes. Your eyes are telling you what happened there.”

“I don’t see anything forcible here,” The Atlantic writer Mark Leibovich told “Morning Joe” viewers Friday, echoing Rubin’s sentiments. “I certainly don’t see anything violent here. and it seems like a pretty clear-cut First Amendment issue, and I don’t think this is going to go much farther than just sort of the day-of headlines here.”

“It’s a photo op,” Leibovich said. “It has taken the attention away from what has been a full-on fiasco in Minnesota this week.” Norris, for her part, voiced her concern about the message that Lemon and Fort’s arrests send to the journalists still on the ground right now in Minneapolis.

“This is clearly meant to send a message and a dangerous message to working journalists to, perhaps, make people think twice about covering these protests,” Norris explained. “For journalists working in Minneapolis covering these protests, covering just activity with ICE deportations, it’s becoming increasingly difficult and increasingly dangerous.”

“I think that they’re really trying to send a message to people to perhaps pull back, and I don’t think journalists will do that,” Norris concluded. “I don’t think journalists will take their eye off the ball because there is so much at stake right now in Minneapolis.”

You can watch the full “Morning Joe” segment yourself in the video above.

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