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What happened at Cities Church in St. Paul on January 18, 2026 was not a peaceful demonstration — it was an organized assault on a house of worship that left congregants frightened and violated. Protesters who streamed into the sanctuary disrupted a Sunday service with chants and accusations, claiming the pastor had ties to ICE, and the scene crossed the line from protest to intimidation in front of families and children.
Don Lemon streamed the chaos to his audience and conducted interviews with organizers before and during the disruption, insisting he was simply reporting the event while many conservatives saw him as an emboldening presence for the mob. His legal team later celebrated a magistrate judge’s decision to reject initial charges, but that procedural reprieve does not erase the disturbing footage showing a journalist who at minimum embedded himself with activists rather than neutrally covering a story.
The Department of Justice has rightly opened an investigation into whether federal laws like the FACE Act and other civil rights statutes were violated, and Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon has made clear the Justice Department will pursue accountability where appropriate. This is a necessary stand by law enforcement to send a message that sacred spaces and religious liberty will not be targets for political theater.
Attorney General Pam Bondi drove that point home on Hannity, reminding Americans that people of all faiths have the right to worship without fear and promising that there is “more to come” in terms of prosecutions. Bondi’s toughness on this issue — and her blunt refusal to let churches be treated as acceptable staging grounds for left-wing stunts — deserves praise from anyone who believes in law and order and the freedom to worship.
Federal agents have already arrested organizers tied to the operation, including high-profile figures accused of conspiring to deprive others of their civil rights, and more charges are being evaluated as investigators comb through the evidence. These arrests should reassure law-abiding Americans that the rule of law still matters, and that violent or coercive political tactics aimed at silencing religious communities will carry consequences.
Let this episode be a reckoning: the same media elites who cheer disruptions when it advances their agenda cannot be allowed to normalize the desecration of worship. Conservatives should stand firmly with Attorney General Bondi and the DOJ’s commitment to protect churches, demand fair but forceful enforcement, and call out anyone — including so-called journalists — who stokes mobs under the cover of livestreams.
