Former CNN anchor Don Lemon had time to address Nicki Minaj‘s homophobic social media post about his coverage of the anti-ICE protests in Minnesota.
“People have been asking about responding to Nicki Minaj’s unhinged, homophobic tweet about me,” he began in his Instagram video posted on Monday (Jan. 19). “I usually don’t respond to this stuff, but let me just say this. Nicki Minaj, stop talking about sh-t which you know nothing about. This is out of your depth, by the way. And you are a homophobic bigot…She doesn’t understand politics. She doesn’t understand journalism. And I’m not surprised that she is weighing in on something that is beyond her capacity.”
After catching wind of Lemon’s on-the-ground coverage of the protest that disrupted a church service in St. Paul, Minnesota, Minaj took to her X account earlier in the day to share her thoughts, posting a photo of Chucky. “DON ‘COCK SUCKIN’ LEMON IS DISGUSTING. HOW DARE YOU?” she wrote. “I WANT THAT THUG IN JAIL!!!!! HE WOULD NEVER DO THAT TO ANY OTHER RELIGION. LOCK HIM UP!!!!!”
“I think she put the Chucky doll in [her post]. A better symbol that should have been represented in that picture is a ‘Pick Me’ doll because Nicki Minaj is a pick me,” Lemon added in his clapback. “She will do anything that is expedient for her politically. And again, she’s ignorant. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about. She’s always weighing in on things that she doesn’t know about. Nicki Minaj should just sit the f-ck down.”
As media coverage of Minaj and Lemon’s exchange hit the web, one Barb/X user wrote, “Now that entire media leg posting that ‘slur’ lie lol [laughing emoji] Mannnn Nicki can tear these ppl up ,these be full blown smear campaigns ,these media outlets are careless and tacky .”
Minaj replied to the post with a picture of Chucky flicking the middle finger. “LOL!!! And I purposely wrote it that way b/c I knew that would be the only way to get the cock suckas to post about it,” she explained. “They would’ve all collectively ignored the despicable behavior displayed by Lemon head. I’m glad they’re angry. They’re about to get angrier.”
The Department of Justice’s Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Harmeet Dhillon, told podcaster Benny Johnson that the DOJ is considering charging Lemon under the Ku Klux Klan Act for his conduct and that Lemon is officially “on notice.” She also noted that the federal executive agency is investigating the demonstration as a potential violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act or the FACE Act, which prohibits “injuring, intimidating, or interfering with, or attempting to injure, intimidate, or interfere” with the public’s access to religious places of worship and reproductive health services.
“Don Lemon himself has come out and said he knew exactly what was going to happen inside that facility,” Dhillon said on The Benny Show. “He went into the facility, and then he began — quote, unquote — ‘committing journalism,’ as if that’s sort of a shield from being a part, an embedded part, of a criminal conspiracy. It isn’t.”