After Trump Goes On ‘Racist’ Rant Against NFL Player Protests, Players Fire Back At President
Donald Trump is under fire after his blithering attack on NFL players who kneel during the national anthem in protest, with a number of NFL players and sports commentators taking aim at remarks being called dangerous and racist.
Trump delivered the attack during a rally held Friday night in Alabama, where the president was speaking in support of Sen. Luther Strange, who is running in the Republican primary to hold onto his position. Among remarks ripping the media and bragging about the crowd size, Trump took aim at NFL players who have decided to sit out the national anthem as a protest against police brutality against minorities.
Trump said that players who took that stance should be fired.
“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, say: ‘Get that son of a b—- off the field right now. Out. He’s fired. He’s fired,'” Trump said (via SI.com).
Trump later called on people to walk out of these NFL games in protest, which he said would bring an end to the player protests quickly.
The remarks drew cheers from the Huntsville, Alabama, crowd, but sparked an immediate backlash elsewhere. Many decried the remarks as racist, noting that the protesting players to this point have been African-American and that the protest is focused on mistreatment of minorities by police.
President Trump: NFL owners should fire players who protest the national anthem https://t.co/tnpVNF9oL6 pic.twitter.com/5uuJ7OQT7O
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) September 23, 2017
As many noted, Trump’s attitude toward protesting NFL player protests seemed in sharp contrast to the white supremacists who rallied in Charlottesville, Virginia, this summer in protest of the removal of a Confederate statue. At the time, Trump said there were “very fine people” among the protesters, despite the racially charged nature of the protest and the violence that left one counter-protester dead.
When the same @POTUS who calls white supremacists "very fine people" calls you a SOB, wear it as a badge of honor @Kaepernick7.
— Ben Jealous (@BenJealous) September 23, 2017
This is the President of the United States referring to an American who has exercised his right to protest racial injustice. https://t.co/Tb764vWjuT
— ACLU (@ACLU) September 23, 2017
A number of NFL players also spoke out against Donald Trump’s attacks on the player protests.
#Kaepernick we riding with you bro ??
— Reggie Bush (@ReggieBush) September 23, 2017
Trump stay in ur place… football have nothing to do wit u smh
— Zach Brown (@ZachBrown_55) September 23, 2017
There has already been plenty of controversy between Donald Trump and members of the sports world. When ESPN anchor Jemele Hill fired off a tweet calling Trump a “white supremacist,” the White House responded by saying that such a criticism was a “fireable offense” and Trump himself demanded that ESPN offer him an apology for “untruth.” While ESPN publicly rebuked Hill for her remarks, she was not fired and the network did not issue an apology to Trump.
[Featured Image by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images]
