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BREAKING: Federal Agents Arrest Don Lemon & Georgia Fort | democracyish LIVE

democracy-ish

Mary Trump Media

Defending Democracy, Government, Danielle Moodie, White Supremacy In Politics, Multiracial Democracy, News, Social Justice Podcast, U.s. Politics Podcast, Political Commentary, Society & Culture, American Politics, Fight For Democracy., Political Podcast, Racial Justice, Politics, Wajahat Ali, Progressive Politics Podcast, Media And Politics, Democracy Podcast

4.8774 Ratings

🗓️ 30 January 2026

⏱️ 88 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today, federal agents arrested journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort in connection with their coverage of a protest inside a church in St. Paul, Minnesota — reigniting a nationwide debate over press freedom and the First Amendment.


Lemon — a longtime national news anchor — and Fort — an independent journalist — were taken into federal custody after covering a demonstration that disrupted services at Cities Church, where protesters confronted a pastor alleged to be affiliated with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Federal prosecutors have alleged violations related to the disturbance, but critics and civil rights advocates argue these arrests represent an unprecedented crackdown on journalists simply doing their jobs.


At the same time, federal agents executed a court-authorized raid on the Fulton County, Georgia Election Hub, seizing 2020 ballots and election records — a move that has drawn sharp criticism from election officials and democracy watchdogs alike.


In this podcast:

🔹 What reporters were doing at the church — and why the DOJ pursued arrests.

🔹 How this intersects with broader federal action on election materials.

🔹 Legal and constitutional implications for journalism and democratic norms.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Folks, welcome to Democracy-ish.

0:09.4

I'm Danielle Moody, and we come to you today with extraordinarily upsetting, devastating,

0:17.1

outrageous, breaking news of the arrest of Don Lemon, of Georgia Fort, of Traheen Cruz,

0:27.3

and others who have been arrested for being a part of the press and covering the

0:34.6

church protest in Minnesota.

0:38.3

Donald Trump's DOJ was denied multiple court orders

0:45.3

for that arrest.

0:47.3

He had multiple denials and went to him in appeals

0:50.3

and then found a grand jury to indict these people.

0:55.6

They are in federal custody right now.

0:57.7

We're going to talk about it.

0:59.1

Woj, you've been on air with With Joy and just tapped out of that to come over to our show.

1:08.3

Your reactions.

1:10.0

Let's just share our reactions. you know my my reactions was I was

1:13.5

shocked but not surprised but I was shocked and it's good to be shocked and you have to be shocked

1:19.2

because this is not normal as you said Don Lemon is a colleague he's a friend regardless

1:23.8

of what you think about him if they can come after journalists for simply doing their jobs,

1:28.1

if they can abridge our First Amendment rights, which is what they're doing against the ICE protesters

1:32.4

in Minnesota, I think it can go against a Fourth Amendment rights and barge into homes without a search warrant.

1:40.1

If they're now telling you, oh, by the way, don't bring your gun to a protest, which is against the Second Amendment right, if they can go after Don, if they can kill Renénie Nicole Good, if they can kill Alex Prattie, two white people and American citizens, and before their blood is even cold, they can lie about them, dehumanize them, call them domestic terrorists,

2:03.1

instead of investigating their murderers, begin investigations into their spouses, which is what

2:08.4

they did with Renanical Good, justify their murder and rationalize it.

...

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