A Fox News contributor says that former CNN anchor Don Lemon should be charged with a hate crime for reporting on a protest at a church in Minnesota.

Lemon broadcast a protest of the Cities Church in St. Paul last month. One of the church’s pastors works for ICE, and the protestors chanted Renee Good’s name, among other things. The right has treated this protest as an attack on Christians, even though it was co-organized by a Christian preacher and many of the protestors were Christians as well.

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Appeals court refuses to allow arrest of Don Lemon for reporting on allegedly anti-Christian protest

Lemon, along with several of the protestors, has been arrested. Lemon faces charges that include intimidating people out of practicing their religion, but the charging document only lists acts of journalism as examples of his intimidating others, like broadcasting the protest, interviewing congregants, and making observations about what he was seeing.

Fox host Sean Hannity, on his radio show, raged at the protest, saying that the congregants were somehow incapable of leaving, even as they stood there being interviewed at length by Lemon. He then played some audio from the protest, which included one protestor (possibly William Kelly, who was also arrested), calling the Cities Church congregants “comfortable white people.” Hannity then asked Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett to comment on the audio clip.

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“The racist overtones are conspicuous for all to see and hear on those videotapes,” Jarrett said. “And then, you know, Don Lemon later appeared on a podcast, and he doubled down on it. He called the members of the church ‘entitled white supremacists’ as if that somehow justifies an attack on them.”

That is not true. Jarrett is likely referring to Lemon’s appearance on Jennifer Welch’s podcast, where he said that the congregants of Cities Church don’t practice “the type of Christianity that I practice” and that that’s because they’re “entitled.” He later explained that he believes that entitlement comes from “a supremacy, a white supremacy, and they think that this country was built for them,” and that they believe the U.S. “is a Christian country.”

“It’s religious freedom, but only if you’re a Christian and only if you’re a white male, pretty much,” Lemon said, which is an observation that would explain why people like Jarrett see the protest as an “attack” on Christians even though it was Christians who were protesting.

Then Jarrett said that Lemon should face hate crimes charges because Lemon and the protestors were, according to him, trying to intimidate people for being white.

“You know, it’s not just a despicable remark, but it tells me that they were taunted because of their race, which qualifies as a hate crime,” Jarrett said. “I would have charged him with that.”

Many people witnessing ICE activity in Minnesota say they are seeing agents target people of color. The mayor of St. Paul described how ICE agents are “going door to door” and arresting people “by the way that you look and the way that you sound.” ICE is also facing a lawsuit for allegedly racially profiling its victims.

The Department of Homeland Security denies that ICE is engaged in racial profiling.

But this disparity in who is getting harassed, arrested, and kidnapped by ICE agents may explain why Lemon noted that the mostly white and conservative Cities Church congregants were not too bothered by ICE’s activities.

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