Former CNN host Don Lemon told a podcast audience to arm up in response to President Donald Trump's policies on immigration enforcement.
Lemon appeared on the podcast "The Left Hook with Wajahat Ali" on Tuesday and suggested that Black and brown Americans "of all stripes" should take the available legal steps to obtain guns in case Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents show up.
While not suggesting that he wanted to be taken as "condoning or promoting violence," he said Americans should be wary of "the niceties," as federal agents make arrests "without due process."
Lemon said people being arrested by ICE are being sent "off to a gulag."
A gulag refers to a system of forced-labor camps and penal institutions used by the Soviet Union to imprison political prisoners, dissidents, and common criminals, often under brutal conditions and for indefinite or long periods of time.
"If you believe in the Second Amendment," said Lemon, "if you believe in the Constitution, Black people, brown people of all stripes, whether you're an Indian American or a Mexican American or whoever you are, go out in your place where you live and get a gun legally."
"Get a license to carry legally."
He clearly suggested, however, that obtaining a firearm should be done in response to ICE enforcement.
"Because when you have people knocking on your door and taking you away without due process as a citizen, isn't that what the Second Amendment was written for?"
"Nobody is illegal," Lemon claimed. "It is a misdemeanor to cross the border."
"Now, if you do it a number of times, then it becomes something else. But … we have degrees of criminality in this country."
He said Trump is the criminal involved.
"What Donald Trump did is at the highest level of criminality, except for taking someone's life, and someone who is crossing the border is nowhere near that," Lemon added.
Lemon's comments come after a Department of Homeland Security report released Oct. 9 stated, "Our officers are facing a more than 1,000% increase in assaults against them, and their families are being [doxed] and threatened online."
Jim Mishler ✉
Jim Mishler, a seasoned reporter, anchor and news director, has decades of experience covering crime, politics and environmental issues.
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