Nicki Minaj's ungodly clash with Don Lemon

“Independent” (fired) journalist Don Lemon is making himself the news after he did some activist reporting as part of a mob that stormed a Minnesota church, whose pastor is a local ICE official, on Sunday. But if you’re going to cross Christians in America these days, then you’re going to cross Nicki Minaj.

“HOW DARE YOU?” Minaj emphatically posterized Lemon on X. “I WANT THAT THUG IN JAIL!!!!! HE WOULD NEVER DO THAT TO ANY OTHER RELIGION. LOCK HIM UP!!!!!” She accompanied this with a photo of a Chucky doll.

In response, Lemon said, “I’m not surprised Nicki Minaj does not understand journalism and is weighing in on matters that are above her capacity.” He went on TMZ, the program where he naturally belongs, and called the rapper “ignorant.”

The First Amendment is supposed to protect freedom of the press and freedom of religion. Don Lemon and Nicki Minaj, who we were never supposed to mention in the same sentence, are now asking us to pick them. Though I suppose “both” or “none of the above” are also options.

As recently as Sunday morning, neither was a character in Minnesota’s ongoing political struggles. But then approximately 30 protesters, associated with the “Racial Justice Network,” and protesting recent ICE actions in the Twin Cities, entered Cities Church during a service, chanting “ICE out” and “Hands up, don’t shoot.” Lemon livestreamed the incident on his YouTube channel, following the protesters inside. He interviewed them and, at one point, was seen on video kissing the organizer of the protest on the cheek.

Inside the church, Lemon interviewed the lead pastor, Jonathan Parnell, asking him about the interruption. “It’s shameful to interrupt a public gathering of Christians in worship,” Parnell said. Lemon argued to the pastor that there is a “constitutional right to freedom of speech and freedom to assemble and protest.”

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the Department of Justice Harmeet Dhillon put Lemon “on notice,” saying, “a house of worship is not a public forum for your protest! It is a space protected from exactly such acts by federal criminal and civil laws!”

Lemon responded: “This is what the First Amendment is about, the freedom to protest.”

Dillon is threatening to prosecute Lemon under the “Ku Klux Klan Act,” written in 1871 to prevent the Klan from terrorizing black churchgoers. In addition, the Justice Department is invoking 1994’s FACE (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances) Act, which can also protect houses of worship.

Though Nicki Minaj can apparently grab the limelight at any moment these days by speaking at the United Nations or appearing onstage with Erika Kirk, this is a rare moment of recent public attention for Lemon, who once shone so prominently at CNN. “It’s notable that I’ve been cast as the face of a protest I was covering as a journalist, especially since I wasn’t the only reporter there,” he said this week.

Does Lemon want people paying attention to him or not? Is freedom of religion more important than freedom of speech, or are they two sides of the same freedom coin? This feels like self-promotion disguised as a constitutional debate. The real lesson here is that when life gives you the spotlight – or when you deliberately shine it on yourself – you need to make Lemonade.