CNN’s S.E. Cupp Reveals, ‘I Do Not Like Don Lemon’ – But Defends Former Colleague After Arrest

CNN commentator S.E. Cupp slammed the arrest of former network host Don Lemon while making it very clear that her criticism had nothing to do with her personal feelings toward her former colleague.

Overnight, federal agents arrested Lemon in Los Angeles after he covered a protest at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minneapolis, on Jan. 18. Demonstrators entered the church during a service to protest one of its pastors, David Easterwood, who is reportedly acting director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in the city. Protests against ICE and federal immigration agents have surged after agents shot and killed two people in neighboring Minneapolis. The killings occurred amid a broad crackdown in Minnesota in which agents have detained children and asylum-seekers, as well as restaurant workers who had just served agents food.

On Friday in federal court, Lemon pleaded not guilty to charges of deprivation of rights. After being released, he struck a defiant note and reiterated that he was merely covering the demonstration as a journalist.

On Friday, Attorney General Pam Bondi said she personally ordered the arrest of Lemon and independent journalist Georgia Ford, who also covered the church protest.

Hours later on CNN’s The Source, Kaitlan Collins asked for reaction from Cupp, who replied:

Let me say something to get it out of the way, because it would be very disingenuous for me to sit here and say, “Don Lemon and I are friends. Don Lemon and I were great colleagues.”

We weren’t. We’re not. I do not like Don Lemon. I don’t say that to be petty or gossipy. I say that because it’s important, that whether you have a personal grievance with him, you don’t like him, you don’t like his politics, you don’t like his opinions, you don’t like his journalism, is irrelevant.

Getting a tip from a group that they’re going to do something newsworthy, embedding with that group, asking them questions, broadcasting it, and putting context into what is happening is journalism. And that cannot be a crime. Whatever you think of, Don Lemon – and my relationship with him is complicated – defending him is not. And I hope he would do the same for me one day.

I’ll just end by saying, of course, if any evidence comes up that he was colluding with or conspiring with people to commit a crime, this story becomes very different. But to my reading of the indictment, that wasn’t in evidence.

CNN fired Lemon in 2023 after several tense and awkward moments with his female co-hosts. Lemon had hosted Don Lemon Tonight until it was canceled, and Lemon was named co-host of CNN This Morning, co-hosted by Collins and Poppy Harlow. He made waves in 2023 when he said former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley was “not in her prime.”

“When a woman is in their prime in 20s and 30s and maybe 40s,” he said at the time.

In another incident, Lemon reportedly screamed at Collins off-camera.

Watch above via CNN.

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