The wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller celebrated the arrest of ex-CNN journalist Don Lemon with an obscene homophobic slur.
Lemon was taken into custody and faces federal charges after covering an anti-ICE protest at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Katie Miller, who recently launched a MAGA-sympathetic podcast, shared an interview she conducted with rapper Nicki Minaj in which the pair laughed at derogatory language directed at the openly gay journalist.
During the interview, Miller asked Minaj: "You called for Don Lemon's arrest over his church stunt in Minneapolis; he's since called you racist, unhinged, homophobic, and out of your depth. Anything you'd like to say to Don Lemon?"
Minaj responded with reference to a sex act.
Miller posted the clip immediately after news broke Friday that Lemon had been arrested Thursday night for covering a January 18 demonstration. The protest disrupted a Sunday service at Cities Church, where demonstrators accused a pastor of collaborating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Lemon, now working as an independent journalist, has consistently maintained that he was documenting the demonstration as protected First Amendment activity rather than participating in it.
Lemon's attorney, Abbe Lowell, characterized the arrest as "an unprecedented attack" on the First Amendment. Lowell stated: "Instead of investigating the federal agents who killed two peaceful Minnesota protesters, the Trump Justice Department is devoting its time, attention, and resources to this arrest, and that is the real indictment of wrongdoing in this case."
Miller subsequently posted "cry harder" in response to Pod Save America co-host Dan Pfeiffer's assertion that Lemon's arrest represented an attack on press freedom.
Conservative commentator Megyn Kelly also supported the arrest. Kelly posted on X: "For those saying this is criminalizing journalism, journalists don't get a pass when breaking the law just because they have a mic. If I accompanied people storming an abortion clinic, harassing/scaring/'traumatizing' crying women while saying 'But I'm a reporter!' I would absolutely have been charged under any Dem admin."
Harmeet Dhillon, the Justice Department's assistant attorney general for civil rights and Trump ally, had previously warned Lemon: "You are on notice" after his reporting triggered outrage among administration figures. Dhillon had threatened prosecution under the Ku Klux Klan Act or the FACE Act.
