Top Democrats are speaking out after the unprecedented arrests of independent journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, ordered by President Trump’s Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“Don Lemon and Georgia Fort were taken into custody by federal agents for doing exactly what journalists are supposed to do: report the truth. Let me be clear: this is not law enforcement. This is censorship by an authoritarian government,” said U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas.
“This administration has declared open war on the First Amendment. We have seen journalists surveilled, their homes searched, and their access to government agencies deliberately limited for refusing to serve as state propaganda. Today, that campaign of intimidation escalated into outright arrests.”
As theGrio previously reported, Lemon was taken into custody by federal agents late Thursday in Los Angeles, and Fort was arrested early Friday at her residence in Minneapolis. The DOJ has declined to share what federal law Lemon and Fort, who covered a Jan. 18 protest against the Trump administration’s ICE operations inside Cities Church in Minnesota, are accused of violating. On Jan. 22, the DOJ also arrested two Black activists who organized and participated in the church demonstration demanding that one of its pastors, who is an alleged ICE field director, resign.
“They had the audacity to waste your tax dollars going after two Black journalists exercising their First Amendment rights — while protecting pedophiles and the murderers of Renee Good and Alex Pretti,” said Crockett, who said the arrests present a “full-blown constitutional crisis.”
“I will not allow Donald Trump and Pam Bondi to continue weaponizing the Justice Department to silence journalists, intimidate whistleblowers, or terrorize communities into submission. Don Lemon and Georgia Fort must be released immediately,” added the Texas U.S. Senate candidate.
Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, vowed that House Democrats would “stand up for them and the rights of the free and fair press as central to American democracy and our values.”
Speaking of the Founding Father and former U.S. President Thomas Jefferson, Jeffries told reporters on Friday, “Thomas Jefferson famously made that clear that he would prefer a country that had newspapers over government, as opposed to governments over newspapers. This is central to who we are as a country.”
Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the U.S. Senate, said by arresting Lemon, the Trump administration is “behaving no differently from the police states and authoritarian regimes across history.”
“The arrest is a dark message to journalists everywhere: if you dare criticize this administration, watch your back. That is not democracy. That is a police state and that is pure authoritarian bile. Democracy will suffer if the government chokes our civil liberties,” said Schumer. “Under this administration, the Department of Justice has all too often become the Department of Vengeance.”
He added, “Don Lemon should be released at once and the frivolous charges against him dropped.”
