Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, told Newsmax on Friday that the arrests of former CNN anchor Don Lemon and others accused of interrupting a church service in St. Paul, Minnesota, highlight what he called a double standard in how federal laws have been enforced.
Roy told "Rob Schmitt Tonight" the individuals went "into a church" and tried "to break down the service where people have a right to go ... and carry out their faith."
Lemon on Jan. 18 livestreamed a demonstration that interrupted a church service in St. Paul to protest President Donald Trump's immigration and fraud crackdown in the Twin Cities.
Roy said the group frightened children during the disruption.
"They go threaten children," he said. "They disparage their parents in front of these children."
Roy contrasted the incident with prosecutions under the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE Act, which has been used in abortion-related cases.
"They had the audacity when it was the [Joe] Biden regime to be going after ... American citizens who were going to abortion clinics, praying at abortion clinics," Roy said, adding that some were sentenced to lengthy prison terms.
"We had dozens of people who are being prosecuted under the FACE Act ... elderly women," he said.
Roy noted that President Donald Trump pardoned some of those convicted and argued that if the law is applied in one setting, it should be applied in another.
"You want to use the FACE Act, then maybe the FACE Act can now be used to say, 'You're interfering with churches,'" he said.
Although Roy said he is "not a big fan of lots of federal laws" and previously wanted to repeal the FACE Act, he emphasized it remains "a law on the books."
"These people are going to churches and they're, frankly, threatening people," Roy said, adding, "We shouldn't" bow to what he called "their worldview."
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