Fired CNN host Don Lemon says he may seek the presidency and gives himself a 65 to 70 percent chance, if voters want him, and while federal charges still hang over him.
Don Lemon told podcast host Spencer Macnaughton on Uncloseted that he is weighing a presidential campaign and will not rule it out.
Breitbart News reported the former CNN anchor’s remarks, which also drew coverage from Just The News. Lemon did not name an election year.
He put hard numbers on the idea and cast himself as someone who could outperform Donald Trump in the job, even as he said journalism still claims most of his time.
Lemon left little doubt about his openness. He framed the choice as a response to public demand rather than a locked-in plan.
He told Macnaughton:
"If the people want me, I’ll do it,"
He followed that with a hedge about his current workload:
"Look, I never say never. I’ve got a lot on my plate right now doing what I’m doing,"
Lemon, who is 60, gave himself a 65 percent to 70 percent chance of a future campaign. He did not specify 2028, 2032, or any other cycle. The reporting noted he could be thinking about 2032 or 2036.
He also tied the idea to what he called the cultural weight of his work:
"This is not easy to do every day, but... I am very aware of the importance of what I’m doing, what it means to the culture and society."
Lemon went further and measured himself against the current president. He claimed he would do the job better, then immediately described the grind of a real campaign as a barrier.
His words:
"I think I could be a better president than Donald Trump... But it is a daunting undertaking to run for president in this country because you’d have to be devoted to it full-time. And I would like to devote much of my time to journalism,"
He cast the decision as a personal fork in the road between media work and the Oval Office:
"It makes me wonder my best way of being and operating in this society, whether it is through journalism or if it is through becoming the president of the United States,"
No party label, platform, or running mate appeared in the remarks. The pitch stayed personal: public demand, his own odds, and a direct comparison to Trump.
The same reporting placed Lemon’s presidential talk against a live legal problem. Earlier this year he was in Minneapolis covering a protest at Cities Church. Demonstrators entered during a service. Lemon went live on YouTube from the scene.
He later said he was “not part of the group” and was only “photographing” as a journalist. Authorities still arrested him and charged him with federal civil rights crimes. Those charges, first reported in January, remain pending.
No charging document text, case number, or specific statute details were provided beyond the federal civil rights description. The timeline is simple: church protest and livestream, arrest and charges in January, open case now, and a recent podcast in which he floats a White House run.
A fired cable-news host with unresolved federal charges is publicly ranking his own fitness above the president’s and inviting voters to draft him. That is the record he put on the table.
Voters already have a way to measure talk against results, and against a pending federal case that has not gone away.
