Let's bring
a special
guest at this White House event,
our own Don Lemon, who is going to appear
right now with his fiancee, Tim Malone.
Don, you normally cover these things
as a journalist here.
You are attending as somebody whom
this law could potentially affect.
Why was it important
for you to attend the signing?
Well, hi, Jake. How are you?
Thank you for having us on.
Tim is now getting to understand
what I do is so it's hard to hear.
We're right by the speaker
and we're trying to listen to you
and feel it.
Well, it's
not likely to it will affect us.
And we are happy to be here
to witness this moment.
It was important
when he got the invitation
from the White House.
I said immediately,
absolutely, we want to come
and we want to experience this.
As you know, Jake,
we got engaged just before
COVID happened.
We're in the process
of planning our wedding
and then it got sidetracked.
And then after we were able to
go back to the courthouse and
start preparing our to get married again,
we went to the courthouse
and got our marriage license.
It expires on December 18th,
but you have to get married
before December 18.
Oh, we got to go
stand in line
at the courthouse in New York
and do it all over again.
Tim.
First of all, Tim,
let me tell you that the key for
these kinds of events
is to have two IFIs
in one in each one of your ears
to block out the sound.
I know I don't think that we had for IFB
for you guys,
but as a civilian,
what is it
like to watch President Biden
sign this legislation is
as part of the celebration amazing.
I don't know what I expected
to be here today,
but the crowd was pretty, pretty lively.
I think everyone's in a really good mood
and it's it's pretty exciting to be here.
I'm glad we came. And it is packed.
I've been speaking to people.
Jake, you're here a lot.
You've been here a lot.
You were a White House correspondent.
I haven't seen this many people
on the South Lawn in quite some time.
I think they said when the
the infrastructure bill was signed, maybe
but I mean, there's tons of people
and it's great
because it's members of the LGBTQ
plus community and allies.
Our very own Margaret Hoover is here
who has fought for marriage equality
for so long.
She's here as well.
I mean, it's just it's fantastic.
Everybody's happy.
I was speaking
to some members of the press
and they said there's no vitriol,
there's nobody fighting about politics.
Everyone is just happy to be here.
It's a really good spirit, in a good mood
right now.
The mood was
all smiles
and everyone was happy
there was very little maybe no politics
today
and people were just happy to be there.
It was.
Thousands of people
crowded onto the South Lawn Wolf.
I'm sure you saw the pictures
and people around the world
watched on CNN
watching the president
of the United States,
the vice president,
the speaker of the House,
the the House, the Senate
majority leader,
all come out
and speak about the rights
for everyone to be able
to get married in this country.
Just about basic
civil rights
that people should have that
we're that should all be granted to us
under the Constitution. Absolutely.
I wasn't supposed to report, Wolf, today.
I was just supposed to sort of
go to the ceremony because I was invited
and I try to take it all in.
It was a really
weird experience,
quite honestly, to
to stand there
and watch this all happening.
Was kind of an out of body experience.
So why was that?
I was I was happy and everybody was happy
because growing up, I never thought that
I would
you know,
once I realized that I was gay,
I never thought that
I would have the opportunity
or really the privilege or the honor
to be married.
I thought it was something
that I'd have to keep a secret.
And then obviously in 20, 15
that all changed.
And then I met someone a year later
and decided
that I wanted to spend my life with him.
And as we were planning our wedding,
as you know, Wolf, you came to you
and your lovely wife, Lynn,
came to our engagement party
and bought us a beautiful gift.
And then it happened.
And so we it got stalled.
And then after COVID was,
you know,
after that,
some of the restrictions were lifted.
We went to the courthouse
finally to get our marriage license
and a couple of months ago,
it expires on December 18th.
If we don't do it by then,
we'll have to go back
and go through that process.
Obviously, we could have done it online,
but we want it to be it's
so important,
especially for members
of the LGBTQ community
who want to get married.
It's really important for us
to go through the process.
It is a legal process
as well as a process of love.
And so we wanted to
take all of those steps
and feel all of those steps.
And when I got the invitation
from from the White House
to come, this week,
I didn't want when I got to the gates,
I said, Oh, Mr.
Lemon, you know,
someone to come get you,
Jamie, or someone.
And I said, No,
I want to get in this line
and I want to
experience it like everybody else.
We waited an hour in line.
We talked to people, we took pictures,
we stood there
and someone called me over and said,
Hey, come, you know, come, go on CNN.
And I did it.
So this is very important
for members of the LGBTQ community.
It's not just ceremony.
It's a legal right
that all Americans
are entitled to under the Constitution.
Are absolutely, absolutely right.
And congratulations.
I'm so happy and excited
that you're going to be getting married
very, very soon.