Bill Maher issued a bold message about Don Lemon‘s arrest — and he didn’t mince words with his blunt response.
On the Friday, January 30 episode of Real Time With Bill Maher, the late-night host, 70, sat down with his panel guests, Joe Scarborough, MS NOW’s Morning Joe host, and former Republican congresswoman from Georgia, Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Maher listed “fascist” things that President Donald Trump‘s administration has recently done when he brought up Lemon’s arrest. The journalist was charged with conspiracy and interfering with the First Amendment rights of churchgoers during an anti-ICE protest at the Cities Church in St. Paul on January 18, the Associated Press reported.
“A viral video in Maine, ICE guy’s taking this woman’s, a picture of her license plate, and she says, ‘Why are you taking my information down?'” Maher explained. “This is caught on tape, I guess, because they have the quote, ‘Because we have a nice little database, and now you’re considered a domestic terrorist.'”
He then pointed out, “That is exactly what they do in fascist governments. Whenever you’re a protester, you’re actually an enemy of the state, and we arrest you. That’s what’s going on in Iran right now. They arrested Don Lemon…”
That’s when an audience member exclaimed, “Yes!”
To that, Maher said, “‘Somebody went, ‘Yes,’ like good, I don’t know. I don’t know.” After the audience groaned, he bluntly stated, “It’s not good to arrest him.”
Greene replied, “Well, I’m going to say he violated the FACE Act. He went into a church, disrupted their worship, and then later, in an interview, compared them to white supremacists. That’s not journalism. That’s activism. I had an experience with Don Lemon.”
Maher persisted, “What, does it warrant getting arrested?”
Greene continued, “Disrupting a worship service, stopping people’s right to worship God, that is violation of the FACE Act. And under the Biden administration, pro-lifers were sent to prison up to 11 years for praying in front of an abortion clinic, and they were convicted under the FACE Act.”
She concluded, “So I don’t think that’s journalism, that’s not First Amendment, going in and harassing people in the middle of church.”
Maher joked, “OK, but can we just charge him with ‘not cool, man?'”
To wrap up the topic, Scarborough shared, “I think there has to be a differentiation between if somebody’s going in there and saying, ‘I’m not with them. Can I ask you some questions?’ Because you’re going to have embeds in war, you’re going to have embeds in protest. So yeah. There’s no doubt this was meant to scare other reporters, to scare other journalists.”
Real Time With Bill Maher, Fridays at 10/9c, HBO
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