Behar Equates Don Lemon Storming Church to Press Documenting Nazi Concentration Camps

Nicholas Fondacaro
February 3rd, 2026 2:12 PM

Text to Speech

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Finally back from a week-long unexplained absence, ABC co-host Joy Behar returned to The View as crazy as ever. Delivering her first public comments about the arrest of disgraced form CNN host Don Lemon, on Tuesday, Behar defended not only Lemon but the rioters who stormed the Cities Church in St. Paul Minnesota. She claimed they had a right to protest in the church and ludicrously equated Lemon being in the church to General Dwight D. Eisenhower bringing in journalists to document concentration camps and the Holocaust.

Behar began her comments by suggesting that Lemon and the mob of leftist extremists somehow had a right to storm a church, disrupt the service, refuse to leave when asked, and obstruct parishioners who tried to leave.

“So, I mean, all I can say is it’s in the Constitution, the right to protest; and he wasn't even there protesting. He was there as a journalist,” she argued. “And I think they want to use him as some kind of a, you know, an example to intimidate other journalists.”

Further proving how detached from reality she was, Behar sought to tie a parallel between Lemon storming Cities Church to Eisenhower bringing in journalists to document the Dachau concentration camp:

But, you know, I was reading something the other day about World War II. When the Americans liberated Dachau, after World War II during the Holocaust – after the Holocaust, Dwight D. Eisenhower said take pictures of these concentration camps because years will go by and people will not believe this happened.

So, this administration does not really like somebody like Don Lemon who has a camera, who a position - like we do in a way - to speak to the people and tell them what really is going on. So, you know, God bless Dwight D. Eisenhower and Don Lemon.

 

 

Behar never explained what she thought was happening inside the church that warranted her making that analogy.

Stepping up to once again defend her “dearest friend,” co-host Sunny Hostin insisted that what Lemon did was “perfectly normal” and compared it to journalists embedding themselves with law enforcement:

HOSTIN: And I think people need to remember that journalists embed themselves in protests, embed themselves with the government, embed themselves -

HAINES: In campaigns.

HOSTIN: - in campaigns, embed themselves in police activity all the time. That is the practice of journalism. So, the fact that he was at a protest embedded in it is perfectly normal. It is not a crime to be a journalist.

Attempting to have it both ways, Behar built off Hostin by arguing that even if Lemon was protesting by busting into the church, it was a protected act. “No, but even if he was protesting, it is guaranteed by the Constitution,” she said.

 

 

Useless “Republican” Alyssa Farah Griffin even backed up Behar. “But under freedom of the press though, under the First Amendment he has a right to be there covering it,” she added.

“If you go to the ACLU, they will send you the Constitution. If you haven't read it lately, it's really interesting. You'd be surprised at all the things that should be happening but are not,” moderator Whoopi Goldberg pompously declared.

All of them were wrong. The First Amendment’s right to free speech did not supersede the amendment’s right to freely practice one’s religion. Of course, they also refused to actually examine the law Lemon and the rioters allegedly broke, which - in part - made it a crime to disrupt a religious service.

The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:

ABC’s The View
February 3, 2026
11:17:08 a.m. Eastern

(…)

JOY BEHAR: I know Don very well. And I wasn’t here. So, I mean, all I can say is it’s in the Constitution, the right to protest; and he wasn't even there protesting. He was there as a journalist.

SUNNY HOSTIN: Correct.

BEHAR: And I think they want to use him as some kind of a, you know, an example to intimidate other journalists.

SARA HAINES: To scare people.

HOSTIN: Other journalists.

BEHAR: But, you know, I was reading something the other day about World War II. When the Americans liberated Dachau, after World War II during the Holocaust – after the Holocaust, Dwight D. Eisenhower said take pictures of these concentration camps because years will go by and people will not believe this happened.

So, this administration does not really like somebody like Don Lemon who has a camera, who a position - like we do in a way - to speak to the people and tell them what really is going on. So, you know, God bless Dwight D. Eisenhower and Don Lemon.

And I would just like to add that I think they've made him more popular than ever.

HOSTIN: Yes.

BEHAR: He now will triple his viewership on his podcast. Good for you.

(…)

11:18:43 a.m. Eastern

HOSTIN: And I think people need to remember that journalists embed themselves in protests, embed themselves with the government, embed themselves -

HAINES: In campaigns.

HOSTIN: - in campaigns, embed themselves in police activity all the time. That is the practice of journalism. So, the fact that he was at a protest embedded in it is perfectly normal. It is not a crime to be a journalist.

BEHAR: No, but even if he was protesting, it is guaranteed by the Constitution.

HOSTIN: But he was not protesting, he was embedded.

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: But under freedom of the press though, under the First Amendment he has a right to be there covering it.

GOLDBERG: If you go to the ACLU, they will send you the Constitution. If you haven't read it lately, it's really interesting. You'd be surprised at all the things that should be happening but are not.

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