Overview
- Lemon made the comments on The Left Hook podcast, urging legal gun purchases and carry licenses in case ICE agents come to homes.
- He said he was not condoning violence and claimed ICE was detaining people without due process, using the phrase “sent to a gulag.”
- DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin called the remarks unhinged and said such rhetoric risks getting officers killed.
- A DHS report released Oct. 9 reported more than a 1,000% year-over-year increase in assaults on ICE officers during intensified enforcement.
- Podcast host Wajahat Ali defended Lemon’s speech on First and Second Amendment grounds, while conservative activists labeled the comments incitement and pointed to recent attacks on ICE facilities, including a Sept. 24 shooting in Dallas.