Thursday morning’s programming on MSNBC devoted quite a bit of time to trashing President Trump’s reaction to the new NFL policy requiring football players to either stand for the National Anthem on the field or stay in the locker room. The media particularly found themselves hysterical over President Trump’s suggestion that if players don’t want to stand for the National Anthem, they “shouldn’t be in the country.” Morning Joe panelist Eddie Glaude Jr. compared President Trump to dictatorial Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan while panelists on MSNBC Live With Stephanie Ruhle decried President Trump as a “bully” and tried to make him look like a racist.
Fox News Host Brian Kilmeade asked President Trump to weigh in on the new NFL policy during an exclusive interview on Fox & Friends, which aired Thursday morning. “You have to stand proudly for the National Anthem or you shouldn’t be playing. You shouldn’t be there. Maybe you shouldn’t be in the country. You have to stand proudly for the National Anthem.”
On Morning Joe, Willie Geist asked Princeton Professor Eddie Glaude Jr. to weigh in on the President’s “staggering” comments. Glaude responded: “It’s ridiculous. It’s absurd. He sounds a lot like Erdogan right there, doesn’t he? He doesn’t sound like the leader of the free world.” For the record, President Trump did not use the power of the government to force the NFL to make its players stand for the National Anthem. Public opinion probably did more than anything else to influence the NFL’s decision.
The President’s comments on Fox & Friends came up again during MSNBC Live With Stephanie Ruhle. Attorney Midwin Charles informed host Stephanie Ruhle that the new NFL policy does not violate the First Amendment. Politico’s Ben White argued that the NFL made a mistake with its new policy because “there’s no satisfying him on this,” specifically referring to President Trump’s disappointment with the fact that the new policy still allows players to remain in the locker room during the National Anthem. Charles did not act surprised that the President wants the NFL to go further with their new policy: “when you give an inch to a bully, he’ll take a mile. I mean, that’s just exactly what happens here with this President.”
The panel also did their best to make the President look like a racist, with The New York Daily News’s Mike Lupica pointing out that the whole debate about kneeling began “on a Friday night at a rally in Alabama with the President of the United States speaking to a crowd that looked like an SEC white football crowd in 1955 calling them SOBS and saying they should be fired. In what world other than his is that okay?”
Hysteria over President Trump’s comments continued well into primetime on MSNBC, with former NFL star and 9/11 truther Dante Stallworth appearing on Hardball to weigh in on the matter. Stallworth accused the President of “flirting with authoritarianism,” once again bringing up Erdogan, whom Stallworth described as someone “he’s obviously good friends with.”
The media hysteria fails to keep in mind that players can still take a knee during the National Anthem; although their team owners will have to pay a fine if any of their players decide to kneel during the Anthem. New York Jets co-owner Christopher Johnson has already said that he would pay a fine for any players who elect to defy the NFL’s new policy. Maybe the Jets would like to sign Colin Kaepernick, who has spent the past year complaining about how no team wants to sign him because of the controversy he has created by spearheading the “kneel during the anthem” movement.
As football season approaches, the media will continue to demonize anyone who wants all football players to stand during the National Anthem and protest on their own time as racist. Hopefully, the NFL's new policy will enable Americans to once again see football as a place to unite Americans and escape today's polarizing political climate.
Morning Joe
05/24/18
08:52 AM
WILLIE GEIST: President Trump spoke yesterday on Long Island at an event focused on immigration and violence tied to the MS-13 gang. And in a taped interview with Fox News, the President had this to say.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Everybody knows what’s going on. These are vicious killers and they shouldn’t be allowed into the country. The laws are horrible. We’re bringing them out by the thousands. As you know, we’re setting records. This is a record that I’m not even, I don’t even like talking about it because it’s so ridiculous. They shouldn’t be in the country. But we are doing from the standpoint of law enforcement, a great job. The Democrats are sticking up for MS-13. You heard Nancy Pelosi the other day like trying to find all sorts of reasons why they should be able to stay. These are stone-cold killers, vicious killers. And when you hear families like that and see families, these are incredible families, where they lost their daughters in this case, you had some other people in the room, they lost sons. This should never happen.
GEIST: That’s the President talking there talking about MS-13 gang members that they’re vicious killers. They shouldn’t be allowed into the country. President Trump also offered his thoughts on the NFL’s new policy regarding the National Anthem.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I don’t think people should be staying in locker rooms but still I think it’s good. You have to stand proudly for the National Anthem or you shouldn’t be playing. You shouldn’t be there. Maybe you shouldn’t be in the country. You have to stand proudly for the National Anthem. And the NFL owners did the right thing if that’s what they’ve done. I think the people pushed it forward. This was not me. I brought it out. I think the people pushed it forward. This country’s very smart. We have very smart people. And, you know, that’s something ideally could have been taken care of when it first started. It would have been a lot easier. But if they did that, they’re doing the right thing.
GEIST: So Eddie, let’s just repeat what the President said about the NFL players who have chosen to kneel for the Anthem, “maybe you shouldn’t be in the country.” You don’t have to agree with what the players are doing. You can disagree with their decision to kneel during the Anthem, to recognize how staggering that statement is from the President of the United States.
EDDIE GLAUDE: It’s ridiculous. It’s absurd. He sounds a lot like Erdogan right there, doesn’t he? He doesn’t sound like the leader of the free world. I think at the heart of the issue with the Anthem and black athletes, and it’s particularly black athletes, is this racial issue tied to two things. There’s a sense in which these multimillionaire athletes are ungrateful and that they should just go out and play like Laura Ingraham told Lebron, just go out and play.GEIST: Shut up and dribble.
GLAUDE: Shut up and dribble, or shut up and pass the ball or run the ball or catch the ball or block or whatever. So you’re ungrateful, as if someone gave you what you are doing. And then the other thing is this, there’s a sense, and I’ve said this before, there’s a sense in which whenever African-Americans protest, there’s a presumption that their protest reveals that they’re disloyal, that they don’t love the country. And so you get these selective patriots, right? There are some people that can protest according to this group, Cliven Bundy, and they’re considered patriots. But you can have someone take a knee in the name of the country’s principles to bring attention to the brutality of the unequal application of the law and they’re certainly viewed as someone, as traitors because you want to kick them out of the country. It’s so profoundly hypocritical, so profoundly undemocratic and indicative of a, of a long history of racial problems in this country.
JONATHAN LEMIRE: One thing I can say for sure, we know that no matter what happens in September, when these preseason games start, when the regular season games start. No matter what the percentage of players it is who actually stay in the locker room or come out on the field or some who still do kneel, the President will bring this up again. He feels this is a winner for him. Last fall, let’s remembers he spent far more far more time talking about these Anthem protests then the devastating hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico and the south. But this is something he feels like inflames his base. He thinks it’s a political winner; this will be something you will hear him use ahead of the midterms.
GLAUDE: Exactly.
LEMIRE: This is something that he will go to time and time again. It is a culture war that he wants to fight.
GEIST: And the protests will continue in one form or another. You already had one owner say I will pay your fine if you want to continue to kneel. So the President will have this as an issue going into the fall.
MSNBC Live With Stephanie Ruhle
05/24/18
09:20 AM
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I don’t think people should be staying in locker rooms, but still, I think it’s good. You have to stand proudly for the National Anthem or you shouldn’t be playing. You shouldn’t be there. Maybe you shouldn’t be in the country.
STEPHANIE RUHLE: That was President Trump’s response to the new NFL policy banning players from kneeling on the field during the National Anthem as a method of protest. Some of the League’s players and owners have had a very different reaction. Philadelphia Eagles defensive back Malcolm Jenkins tweeted, “#TheFightContinues. What NFL owners did today was thwart the players’ constitutional rights to express themselves and use our platform to draw attention to social injustices like racial inequality in our country. Everyone loses when voices get stifled.” I want to bring in Midwin Charles, attorney at Midwin Charles and Associates, Ben White, the host of Politico’s Money podcast and Michael Lupica of the Daily News. You’ve got to look at the Daily News today. The cover, “NFL dishonors the flag.” I’m going to hold that up for you, right there. Pick it up. Midwin, the NFL is a private organization. We knew, given how big this is, they were going to do something. Does this new policy violate constitutional rights?
MIDWIN CHARLES: Well, the short answer to your question is no. It does not. Private employers have the right to sort of dictate what it is that their employees say on the job. What they say, what they don’t say. Particularly when it comes to political speech or what have you. But that being aside, I think the problem here is that the NFL’s interpretation of what Colin Kaepernick started two years ago and what NFL players are doing, they have basically sort of subverted the issue. The issue is not about disrespecting the American flag. The issue here is drawing awareness to the issue of police brutality or excessive use of police force against unarmed black men, women, and children. And, and, this is really important, the lack of accountability for doing that. So the fact that these players are trying to draw attention to doing that is not disrespecting the flag. In fact, the flag stands for freedom and justice for what? All.STEPHANIE RUHLE: Okay, that nuance has gotten lost. When Colin Kaepernick first started to do this, he went to a veteran who said to him this is what a soldier does when we’re standing at the grave of a fallen soldier. This is the best way to show your respectful, silent protest. Somehow, that’s gotten lost. And this is not just to President Trump’s core base but to a broader audience, when the President says you stand with the flag, you stand with our veterans. While veterans might not feel that way, lots of people in the country say right on, I hear you.
MICHAEL LUPICA: There’s a lot of cock-eyed narratives attached to this. But it started with the one that they were not being patriotic when they took a knee. Dissent is as patriotic as the flag in this country. Stephanie, who died the most popular athlete on Earth? Muhammad Ali.CHARLES: That’s right.
LUPICA: And what would the base now…what would Trump’s base now have said in the late ‘60s when he refused to enter the draft and go to fight in Vietnam? And that was extremely unpopular with the base at the time and he became a beloved figure in this country. I was talking to my, my father is a World War II hero, he was a bombardier in B-24s and I said to him yesterday, what do you think Pop? He said, “I don’t think they should be doing that stuff.” I said, “but let me ask you a question. What’s less American, taking a knee as honorable dissent about all of the things you just listed or black balling footballers, in their prime?” Like Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid for the stance they took by taking a knee.
RUHLE: And let’s actually show. Because one of the reasons they’re taking a knee is because of injustice. And you know the irony of it, it just happened this week. I want to actually…do we have the video? We do. Milwaukee police released this disturbing body cam video last night of an incident from January where officers tackled and tased NBA star Sterling Brown, despite the fact…and I beg you to watch this video, he seemed like he was cooperating and that was the moment that unfolded during a confrontation in a parking lot. Please watch.OFFICER: Take your hands out of your pockets now.
STERLING BROWN: Hold on, I’ve got stuff in my hands.
OFFICER: Taser, taser, taser.
RUHLE: Okay, so Ben, we know that the officers involved in this have been punished. But when the President is saying, you know, these guys are out of bounds, African-American men in sports, those are the most prominent places we see them. We don’t see a huge amount of African guys, African-American guys running fortune 500 companies or in positions of political leadership. They’re leaders in sports. This is their chance to peacefully and respectfully, you know, voice their, their views.
BEN WHITE: Yeah, of course it is. I mean, you see videos like that and it makes your blood boil that this stuff happens. And it happens, you know, to prominent African-Americans and to hundreds of thousands of others who don’t have a platform like this. So to suggest that NFL players can’t use that platform to respectfully say this is not okay, what is happening here is not okay, and if people see it and see them kneeling, okay, why are they kneeling, maybe I should look into that, why is this happening? Of course it’s ridiculous and of course they should be able to protest. But I think what Trump has done with the NFL has proven that, you know, if you give him an inch, he’ll take, want to take a mile. Like they’ve done this sort of appeasement policy to say, okay, you can’t take a knee, and now he’s saying maybe these players shouldn’t be in the locker room and maybe they should leave the country. There’s no satisfying him on this. So even going the length that they did was a huge mistake for them.
CHARLES: That’s because when you give an inch to a bully, he’ll take a mile. I mean, that’s just exactly what happens here with this President.
RUHLE: But that’s when you let the bully take a mile. And the issue is, he makes… he creates a false narrative and it works.
CHARLES: It does work unfortunately. And I think what’s the height of hypocrisy here with the NFL is this is the same NFL that took forever with to come out with the policy to deal with its players who were accused of domestic violence, players who were accused of using illicit, illegal drugs.
LUPICA: Concussions.
CHARLES: Concussions. So are you telling me, NFL, that the idea of standing for the flag is far more important and far more significant to you than victims of domestic violence that your players had inflicted upon women? Or the use of illicit drugs or accusations of rape? So where are your priorities here? You know, this is really all about money at the end of the day. The NFL was, you know, losing viewership and there were issues as to whether or not the loss of viewership was the result of these protests. And remember, it’s important to remember here that Donald Trump at one point had tweeted perhaps these NFL teams should be taxed more.
RUHLE: Okay, but to that point then, if it’s all about money, where’s the money that stands with these views? Because you could make the argument taking a knee
respectfully is standing with the flag because that is what the United States represents.
LUPICA: Again, I told you, there’s a whole bunch of cock-eyed narratives. They wanted to pin the lack of popularity, a decrease in popularity on this. And please remember where this all started.
RUHLE: Could the decrease in popularity have anything to do with mothers like me in 2018, encourage their sons to play something other than football because I’m, I don’t know, not up for a road of concussions?
LUPICA: And the quality…so often quality was crap last year and there weren’t enough stars…
CHARLES: And there’s a lot more stuff on TV to watch now, I’m sorry, it just is what it is.
WHITE: The idea that the, that the NFL’s decrease in popularity is directly attributable to the kneeling is an absurd narrative and not true and there’s plenty of other things that are competing with it.
LUPICA: And remember how this all started, on a Friday night at a rally in Alabama with the President of the United States speaking to a crowd that looked like an SEC white football crowd in 1955 calling them SOBS and saying they should be fired. In what world other than his is that okay?
CHARLES: And the NFL comprises of…you know, the players are 70 percent African-American. So if you want to sew sort of…I just question why the NFL would do something like this and sort of show, sew dissension between their players. I mean, these are your moneymakers, you know, you have to make sure that you want to recruit more African-American players, I mean that really is the bulk of the people who are playing for you and your leagues, 70 percent.
LUPICA: They took a knee in front of the President of the United States yesterday, that’s what happened.
CHARLES: 70 percent African-American.
