Former CNN Anchor Considers Running for President

Former CNN anchor Don Lemon may have his sights set on the Oval Office.

The independent journalist, who was fired from CNN in 2023, revealed on the March 29 episode of Pod Save America that he “could” consider a run for U.S. president if “the right opportunity presented itself.”

“Do I ever think about it? Yes. Could it happen? Yeah, it could happen if the opportunity presented itself, the right opportunity presented itself,” Lemon said when asked about his possible presidential ambitions. “Look, if I wanted to … I know people are going to think I’m crazy, this is going to be the headline, and people are going to laugh about it, I think I could be president of the United States.”

“Look, why can’t I think about running for office? Why can’t I think about being President of the United States?” he continued. “Did anybody think Barack Obama, as he says, this guy with a funny name, from a mixed background, did anybody ever think that he would become president, that he had that aspiration? I don’t have an aspiration to become president, but I do think that I could run this country a lot better than Donald Trump.”

Lemon then said that being a Black man would add an additional challenge to his possible candidacy. “I’m not a white man and the rules are different for me,” he said. “And so just like the rules, I believe, sadly are different for women. They’re different for Hillary Clinton, for Nikki Haley, they’re different for Kamala Harris, they’re different for Alex Wagner, and white men get away with way more than women or Black people or any minority.”

Lemon has not formally announced any political run.

In February, the journalist pleaded not guilty to federal civil rights charges after being accused of taking part in a Jan. 18 protest at a Minnesota church in which an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official is a pastor.

Protestors interrupted a service at Cities Church at the time with chants of “ICE out” and demanding justice for Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three who was shot and killed by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis in January.

Lemon has said in the aftermath of his arrest that he was not a part of the protest group, but was covering the demonstration as a journalist for his independent show.

“I have spent my entire career covering the news. I will not stop now. In fact, there is no more important time than right now, this very moment for a free and independent media that shines a light on the truth and holds those in power accountable,” Lemon told reporters after his arrest, as per PBS.