The most divisive president in modern times seems to have united much of the country against his tyrannical attempt to suppress NFL players’ free speech.
Funny how the GOP is "cool with it" when NFL players take a knee in prayer but not when they take a knee in protest.
Jesus would #TakeAKnee pic.twitter.com/SQ7egOvSpF
— Billy Baldwin (@BillyBaldwin) September 24, 2017
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— Pete Carroll (@PeteCarroll) September 24, 2017
Trump ordered players to stand and owners to fire them if they refused. So more players kneeled and owners supported them.
Trump is weak.— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) September 24, 2017
“I’m pissed off I’ll be honest. I supported Trump, and I’m appalled at these comments. SOB’s? Not the men that I know.†– Rex Ryan just now pic.twitter.com/hsJRRktlsv
— justin kanew (@Kanew) September 24, 2017
#TakeAKneeNFL is not about disrespecting the flag. It's about America disrespecting what the flag is supposed to stand for. https://t.co/nBGCgZKzE9
— Melissa Jo Peltier (@MelissaJPeltier) September 24, 2017
I served America honorably for 22 years so people would be free to exercise their rights under the constitution. #TakeAKneeNFL
— Jeff Charló (@Jeff__Charlot) September 23, 2017
I'm not a Steelers fan but I fully support them. #TakeAKneeNFL
— Amy Hartung (@AmyHartung) September 24, 2017
For the sobering win, because really:
You’ve got to be a pretty crappy President when the NFL can claim the moral high ground in a social issues debate… #TakeAKneeNFL
— Andrew Symes (@asymes86) September 24, 2017
CBS Sports’ James Brown said in a statement:
.@JBsportscaster remarks on President's comments pic.twitter.com/cyZ05kpV9H
— CBS Sports PR (@CBSSportsGang) September 24, 2017
And look, even Milo Yiannopolis, Steve Bannon, and Ann Coulter get something!
Guess Milo Yiannopolis, Steve Bannon & Ann Coulter got the Free Speech Week they wanted after all. pic.twitter.com/lT351UyzNg
— Sleeping Giants (@slpng_giants) September 24, 2017
Okay, it’s true that hard core Trump fans are hanging on, but then they’re fine with Trump shooting someone in the street so we can’t wait for them to join humanity, since that would mean abandoning the Trump Kool-Aid.
But Trump is managing to attack his own supporters with his assault on the NFL, and getting people to stand up for the right to protest the way black people are treated by some police officers and the criminal justice system as a whole.
The Sentencing Project explains:
“Sentencing policies, implicit racial bias, and socioeconomic inequity contribute to racial disparities at every level of the criminal justice system. Today, people of color make up 37% of the U.S. population but 67% of the prison population. Overall, African Americans are more likely than white Americans to be arrested; once arrested, they are more likely to be convicted; and once convicted, they are more likely to face stiff sentences. Black men are six times as likely to be incarcerated as white men and Hispanic men are more than twice as likely to be incarcerated as non-Hispanic white men.”
Black lives matter. That’s the entire point of #TakeTheKnee, and it explains why President Trump has such an issue with these NFL players exercising their rights. This is the same president who defended neo-Nazis and white supremacists after one of them killed an innocent person in Charlottesville. But he has a problem with NFL players exercising their rights.
Trump can’t handle people of color having a say, so he attacked their free speech. Which is to say, Trump attacked free speech. It’s not going over well. If there is one skill at which Trump truly excels, it is unifying people against him and taking an issue that some might agree with him on and making it into an issue only a fool would be seen in public defending.
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Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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