☕️ WASHED UP ☙ Tuesday, January 20, 2026 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠

A special C&C edition — the outrageous Cities Church invasion, and the dramatic self-destruction of whatever was left of Don Lemon's journalistic career. Or podcasting. Whichever.

Good morning, C&C, it’s Tuesday! And it’s the one-year anniversary of Inauguration Day! Can you believe it has already been a whole year? Yesterday’s news cycle was captured by a story most of you have probably already seen, the Minneapolis church invasion. What could I do? It took some not inconsiderable time to sort through all the hot takes and rumors and collect reliable legal analysis for you. So today’s special edition will focus on Don Lemon’s Worst Career Decision ever, along with related news and events from George Floyd’s hometown.

🌍 ESSENTIAL NEWS AND COMMENTARY 🌍

The frozen tundra of the Twin Cities is once again igniting social media, capturing a news cycle— not so much in corporate media, but in Twitter/X’s town square. CNN ran the developing story yesterday below the awkwardly worded headline, “Trump officials investigate protesters who interrupted Minnesota church service, targeting ICE official.” The short version is: disgraced podcaster and former CNN host Don “The” Lemon led a large group of furious BLM activists into a Minneapolis church on Sunday to terrorize the peaceful congregation. He is probably soon going to find out.

At one time, Don Lemon was woke journalism’s golden boy. Diversely intersectional —he is both black and gay— newcomer Lemon got his own CNN show in 2006. By the time the pandemic began, he was ensconced at the highest levels of salary and benefits at the network, making millions every year under his lucrative media contract. But then Lemon began savaging unvaccinated Americans. Yahoo News, September, 2021:

Less than a year later, CNN demoted the anchor, taking away his named show and assigning him to a mere panel. Don Lemon chafed. But the chafing didn’t last long. About a year after that, Lemon was summarily fired for inconvenient “me too” issues. Without notice. Don Lemon didn’t just fall from grace; he fell from grace, crashed through the floor, and tumbled through the first eight levels of Dante’s Media Inferno on his way to the very lowest level— where resentful, washed-up podcasters live.

“Pride, Envy and Avarice,” Dante Alighieri once wrote, “are the three burning coals that have set all hearts on fire.” That describes Don Lemon, to a ’T.’

Now, Mr. Lemon only has a YouTube show, competing with hosts of teenage video game streamers. This weekend, for some reason the former journalist thought it was a good idea to leave his home in New York and go to Minneapolis, to terrify young kids and retired people minding their own business and quietly worshipping at Sunday services. The plan, or scheme, started when documents were filed in a federal case two weeks ago, which included an affidavit from David Easterwood, who identified himself as a “regional director for ICE.”

Having obtained a name, two groups of local Black Lives Matter activists hunted Easterwood down, ultimately discovering he is some kind of assistant pastor at Cities Church in St. Paul. So Lemon and the BLM activists plotted to teach the church a lesson, for including an ICE employee in its pastoral staff. (No wonder ICE agents prefer wearing masks and not filing affidavits.)

If the activists planned to confront the doxxed ICE official, the plan backfired. As far as anyone knows, Mr. Easterwood —the outed ICE employee— didn’t attend church on Sunday. None of the many videos show him anywhere in sight.

The videos, virally spread on social media, show a large group of activists filling the church and screaming like lunatics at churchgoers, with bullhorns, including small children and elderly folks, repeatedly calling them racists, rapists, evil, white supremacists, and so on, and generally making asses of themselves.

Eventually, the church emptied out, and the protestors marched off down a nearby alley.

🔥 Questions abound. Why is Black Lives Matter making so much hay about the shooting of a white woman, or even about the government’s enforcement operations toward illegal aliens? Mission creep? How did Don Lemon even find out about the raid (much less think attending was a good idea)? He was involved from start to inglorious finish. The former anchor-turned-podcaster videoed himself in the car on the way, at a staging event before the activists raided the church, and inside during the chaotic frenzy that followed.

In the legal community, we call that “making evidence against yourself.”

Local police made no arrests. They’re not likely to, either. According to an exclusive published yesterday in the Daily Wire, the protestors included a well-connected staffer from the county attorney’s office, Jamael Lundy, who also happens to be a current candidate for a state senate seat. (Unsurprisingly, since it is Minnesota, after all, Lundy also ‘runs’ a Section 8 housing 501(c) funded by state and federal grants.) Lundy was the first connection to local authorities, which will become significant in a moment.

On his podcast yesterday, Lemon interviewed Minnesota’s Attorney General Keith Ellison —a Muslim— who defended the protestors. Ellison authoritatively insisted that the federal FACE Act doesn’t apply (he was wrong, as we’ll see shortly), and that protestors have a First Amendment right to yell at peaceful worshippers (wrong again). In other words, Minnesota’s top law enforcement officer created evidence of his own refusal to protect the church’s First Amendment right to religious expression.

CLIP: Minnesota Attorney General defends church-invading protestors (0:32).

“People have a right to lift up their voices; you got the First Amendment freedom of expression, so it’s just something you gotta live with in a free society,” the state’s Attorney General offered. Ellison also previously posted a picture of himself being interviewed by Don Lemon before the activists raided Cities Church. In other words, it looks like Ellison knew what was going down and participated in the conspiracy.

In the viral reaction and aftermath, DOJ officials Todd Blanche and Harmeet Dhillon both said that federal law enforcement was responding immediately and surging FBI agents into Minneapolis to investigate the so-called protest. Dhillon expressed some concerns that local federal judges —who recently barred ICE agents from arresting or even detaining ‘peaceful’ protestors who are impeding or following ICE— will refuse to go along:

CLIP: Dhillon—“we all know what the federal judges are doing right now in Minnesota” (0:34).

🔥 It almost seems like Minnesota is trying to create the conditions where President Trump can lawfully invoke the Insurrection Act. The Insurrection Act (codified at 10 U.S.C. §§ 251-255) is a federal law that empowers the President of the United States to domestically deploy U.S. military forces and federalized National Guard troops under certain circumstances. It dates all the way back to 1807. It has been amended over the years, most notably to address civil rights enforcement.

The key relevant provisions are found in 10 U.S.C. § 253. The statute permits military deployment if there is an “insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy” that either (1) hinders the execution of federal or state laws such that a class of people is deprived of constitutional rights and the state is unable or unwilling to protect those rights, or (2) opposes or obstructs U.S. laws or impedes the course of justice.

The Cities Church invasion seems to check many of the Insurrection Act boxes. We see a conspiracy involving state officials who are unwilling to protect Christians’ constitutional rights. We see the hindrance of federal and state laws depriving a class of people (Christians) from their constitutional right to religious expression. The only question is whether one church invasion is enough— or perhaps enough when combined with the rest of the demonstrations that are literally getting people like Reneé Good killed.

If the local federal judges do refuse to issue arrest warrants, it will ironically make the case for the Insurrection Act stronger, by “impeding the course of justice.”

We are watching a game of chess. Courts have hamstrung Trump’s National Guard deployments, arguing that conditions on the ground weren’t bad enough to justify using the National Guard. Obviously, that logic signals judicial skepticism about invocation of the Insurrection Act. So the Trump Administration keeps surging resources into the area while letting the situation develop.

At some point, if not now, the Insurrection Act’s legal requirements will be met in a way that judges can’t possibly quibble with.

🔥 There is no doubt that the protestors, not least of all The Lemon, broke a wide array of federal laws. The two most often mentioned by DOJ officials and intelligent commentators are the FACE Act and —ironically, given yesterday’s federal holiday and the role reversal— the Ku Klux Klan Act. Let’s start with the FACE Act.

You might recall the FACE Act. Biden’s DOJ deployed it against peaceful protestors at abortion clinics. Contrary to Keith Ellison’s ignorant claims to the contrary, the statute explicitly protects places of religious worship, including churches, from certain kinds of interference. Under 18 U.S.C. § 248, it is a federal crime for anyone, “by force or threat of force or by physical obstruction,” to intentionally injure, intimidate, or interfere with (or attempt to do so) any person “lawfully exercising or seeking to exercise the First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship.”

That seems pretty clear.

The Enforcement Act of 1871 (often referred to as the “Klan Act”), is divided into several sections. 18 U.S.C. § 241 (Conspiracy Against Rights) makes it criminally unlawful for two or more persons to conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States (or because of having exercised such a right). Penalties can include fines, imprisonment up to 10 years, or even life/death if aggravating factors (like bodily injury or death) are involved.

The FACE and Klan Acts are just two serious examples of the legal peril to these protestors, not to mention a laundry list of state-level crimes like trespassing and intimidation, which are unfortunately unlikely to be filed by state prosecutors, since those officials appear to be participants in the conspiracy. But the locals’ reticence to bring charges, and the Attorney General’s public declarations of bias, make the federal charges even stronger.

In other words, the more compromised Minnesota looks, the easier it is for DOJ to justify treating this as a classic civil rights case, where federal intervention is necessary because local authorities will not vindicate victims’ rights. Of course, the racial optics are backwards from the classic civil rights patterns, but that doesn’t matter under the statutes.

Now let’s look at the most widely claimed defense: the protesters’ First Amendment rights. It’s the dumbest argument they could come up with.

🔥 Put simply, the First Amendment does not permit trespassing in a private house of worship to make a demonstration.

While defenders of the protesters —including AG Ellison, who should know better— have invoked free speech and assembly rights, these protections are not absolute, and do not extend to entering or disrupting private property without permission.

The First Amendment does not require private property owners —including churches— to allow unwanted expressive activity on their premises. Private owners can set rules limiting speech and exclude people who violate them. If some joker refuses to promptly leave upon request, they can be removed and potentially charged with trespassing (a state crime). Churches are private property, not public forums. A worship service is a private gathering for religious exercise, itself protected under the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause.

The Supreme Court has consistently held that private property owners (like malls, homes, and businesses) can prohibit unwanted speech or demonstrations, even if the property is otherwise open to the public for other purposes, such as shopping or attending services. In cases like Hudgens v. NLRB (1976) and Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robins (1980), the Court clarified that the First Amendment does not compel private owners to host protests (unless the property functions as a public equivalent, like in a company town).

Churches do not meet this threshold.

In short, what the protesters are relying on as their best defense is no defense at all. Apart from that, the BlueSkyers aren’t even trying to mount a legal defense, but are just leaning into whataboutism. For example:

He does call himself “comedy.” So.

🔥 Yesterday, in closely related news, the New York Times ran a story headlined, “Trump Administration Asks Judge to Reject Minnesota’s Call to Block ICE Surge.” The story included a whirlwind of astonishing facts. First, the Minneapolis ICE operation, called “Operation Metro Surge,” now involves three thousand agents, who have reportedly made a staggering three thousand arrests just in the last six weeks, amounting to an unimaginable ten thousand arrests in Minneapolis since the operation started.

Second, the State of Minnesota has filed a novel lawsuit asking a federal judge to essentially evict ICE from the state. The lawsuit argues that the entire operation violates Minnesota’s sovereignty under the 10th Amendment, and that DHS’s “actions appear designed to provoke community outrage, sow fear and inflict emotional distress, and they are interfering with the ability of state and local officials to protect and care for their residents.”

Judge Kate Menendez (Biden appointee) should have thrown the lawsuit out on supremacy grounds, but has so far made no rulings and has invited the DOJ to file a brief. She’s also the same judge who recently ruled that ICE can’t even question protestors who trail ICE agents in their cars.

Third, and possibly the most interesting, the Times reported that “on Friday, the Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into whether Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota and Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis had conspired to impede federal agents.” The BBC reported that the investigation relates to 18 U.S.C. § 372, a rarely used Civil War–era law making it a crime for “two or more persons” to conspire to prevent, by force, intimidation, or threat, any federal officer from discharging their official duties.

That kind of investigation allows DOJ to get hold of all Walz and Frey’s communications. It could be spicy.

Where all of this is going is unclear. But it feels like it is escalating toward some sort of climax.

🔥 Perhaps realizing that church invasions aren’t an acceptable form of protest to most people, no corporate media platforms published the Church story on their home pages. But the President weighed in. “Just watched footage of the Church Raid in Minnesota by the agitators and insurrectionists. These people are professionals! No person acts the way they act. They are highly trained to scream, rant, and rave, like lunatics, in a certain manner, just like they are doing,” Trump posted on Truth Social early this morning.

President Trump’s reference to the protesters being professionals is a nod to “unlawful combinations or conspiracies” from the Insurrection Act, whether he consciously meant it that way or not. Given how much he’s probably thought and talked about that law lately, my guess is that it was intentional.

The Minneapolis protests have become a microcosm of 2020’s “Summer of Love” BLM protests, which coincidentally started in the same city. It’s like the summer of 2020 never actually ended there.

🔥🔥🔥

Take a moment to appreciate him. We’ll never again have a master troller like this one for a president. Trump posted this photoshopped image in the wee hours this morning. Note the map and strategically placed Churchill bust. The President didn’t say anything, but then again, does he need to?

🔥 President Trump and his entourage of 300+ arrived in force in Davos, Switzerland, yesterday to attend the 2026 World Economic Forum. Already, the news is awash in speculation over whether European leaders will make a Greenland deal while everyone is there or possibly sell him Iceland by accident after consuming too many cocktails. All signs point to Trump’s intention to make it the most memorable WEF meeting in history.

Denmark said it will not attend.

It feels like it is about time for President Trump to officially announce the end of the globalist era and tell the leaders what comes next. We’ll see. He won’t publicly address attendees until tomorrow. Which also leaves plenty of time for meetings with low-T officials from Europe.

Hardest hit was the vertically challenged former comedian currently in charge of Ukraine. They’ve forgotten all about him. The Europeans have finally found something even more urgent to fret about. Maybe Zelensky should team up with Don Lemon and help host the podcast.

We’ll keep you briefed on everything you need to know.

Have a terrific Tuesday! Surge back here tomorrow morning, for the latest update of essential news and insightful commentary you can’t get anywhere else.

Don’t race off! We cannot do it alone. Consider joining up with C&C to help move the nation’s needle and change minds. I could sure use your help getting the truth out and spreading optimism and hope, if you can: ☕ Learn How to Get Involved 🦠

How to Donate to Coffee & Covid

Twitter: jchilders98.
Truth Social: jchilders98.
MeWe: mewe.com/i/coffee_and_covid.
Telegram: t.me/coffeecovidnews
C&C Swag! www.shopcoffeeandcovid.com