‘Bats–t Crazy’: Pam Bondi Unravels on Fox News While Trying to Spin DOJ Scandal But Network Quietly Airs Clip That Instantly Blows Up Her Lie
Department of Justice chief Pam Bondi stuttered and sweated recently on Fox News as she tried to justify the arrest of journalist Don Lemon for covering an anti-ICE protest in January at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota.
During a Feb. 2 interview on “Hannity,” as the U.S. attorney general is huffing and puffing her way through a clearly false explanation, Hannity is airing video next to her showing the exact opposite of what she’s claiming happened at the church.
Bondi’s exaggerated account of the events after protesters entered the City’s Church and interrupted the service isn’t supported by video footage from inside the church.
“They bombarded in. And as Don Lemon put it in his own words, they were on their way to a ‘resistance’ at that church, and that’s exactly what they did. They had a resistance operation. They barged in that church,” she insisted as her face got shiny under the stage lights and tiny beads of sweat began appearing on her forehead.
With an inflated sense of outrage, Bondi went on to falsely insist that “400 people” had been inside the church when protesters arrived, then conveniently covered herself by insisting most of the congregation ran out the back door before anyone could record it.
She boldly continued, describing a scene of utter chaos with “children crying,” “parents blocked” from getting their kids out of Sunday school, “a group of women ran out a side door,” people falling on the ice, and all kinds of injuries in the aftermath.
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However, according to the video Hannity aired while Bondi was making unfounded claims about the protest, it clearly shows people calmly seated, others milling about the back of the church, and some engaged in polite conversations.
“The lucky ones were able to get out,” she shamefully continued, grossly over exaggerating what happened inside the church, which by the way, Minneapolis protesters targeted because a church pastor there, David Easterwood, was a member of the leadership at a local ICE office, Salon Magazine reported.
Social media spiraled in outrage at Bondi’s duplicity.
“Wait… the lucky ones were able to get out? How many people did Don Lemon kill?” a Threads user jokingly posted.
Another Threads user stated, “There’s actual videotape to dispute what she says and shows that Lemon was not part of the protest.
“She is batsh-t crazy. But it’s ok for ice to stir a church and drag patrons out. So Christian of her,” still another Threads user angrily posted, referring to other instances where ICE has entered a church or church grounds to arrest people.
Lemon, a 30-year veteran journalist, was arrested last Thursday night, on Jan. 29, at his Beverly Hills hotel where he was covering the Grammy Awards by two dozen federal agents, who as Lemon explained to late night TV host Jimmy Kimmel, pushed him and grabbed him, roughly throwing handcuffs on him, even though he said he offered to turn himself in days earlier, something that’s normally an option when charges for white collar crimes are issued.
Lemon, another journalist, Emmy Award-winning Minnesota reporter Gloria Fort, and seven others are facing federal charges for allegedly violating the FACE Act. Lemon has said repeatedly he was there to cover the protest and is even seen interviewing the pastor on recordings of the protest.
The Trump administration claims that in violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, Lemon, Fort, and the others “oppressed, threatened, and intimidated” churchgoers by entering the church and engaging in “menacing and threatening behavior,” according to Salon Magazine.
Congress passed the FACE Act in 1994, specifically designed to stop anti-abortion demonstrators from blocking health care clinic entrances, a clear overreach in using it to charge Lemon and Fort for documenting the church protest.
The irony of Bondi’s trumped-up charges against Lemon and Fort under the FACE Act is that ICE agents are actually busting into churches and interrupting services trying to catch migrants they claim are violent criminals, a clear violation of the FACE ACT.
In California on Thursday, Jan. 29, ICE agents stormed the grounds of the North Hills United Methodist Church in the San Fernando Valley, arresting a man church officials say is active in their children’s ministries, according to KTLA 5 TV.
The man was arrested and deported to Mexico, but not before local church leaders accused ICE of terrorizing church members, frightening children and disrupting the churches’ ministry, which sounds like a clear violation of the FACE Act.