Don Lemon Addresses His Arrest at Human Rights Campaign Dinner: ‘The Cost of Truth Is Rising’ | Video
Don Lemon addressed his arrest while speaking at the Human Rights Campaign’s Greater New York Dinner, saying: “There is a passage in scripture that says, ‘The truth shall set you free’ … But it does not say the truth will make you safe.”
Lemon was arrested January 30 by a dozen federal agents dispatched to his hotel in Los Angeles two weeks after he covered an anti-ICE protest in a Minneapolis church. Lemon painted his arrest as a grave warning that free speech and the free press are in jeopardy.
Continuing on the scriptural passage, Lemon added: “It does not say [the truth] will make the powerful comfortable. It does not say it will spare you the cost of seeing too clearly. And right now, the cost of truth is rising.”
“Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done,” his attorney Abbe Lowell said in a statement at the time. “The First Amendment exists to protect journalists whose role it is to shine light on the truth and hold those in power accountable. There is no more important time for people like Don to be doing this work.”
Watch a portion of Lemon’s speech in the video above.
“Truth matters,” he concluded. “Witness matters. And silence has never been neutral. As long as there are people willing to speak, as long as there are journalists willing to observe and tell the story, as long as there are communities willing to defend dignity, the light is still on. And if the light is still on, the darkness has not won. Thank you for carrying that light. Thank you for your courage. And thank you for letting me bear witness with you tonight.”
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