On Sunday, leading officials of the Donald Trump
administration were defending the U.S. president’s remarks this weekend on
players in the NFL kneeling within the national anthem, and disagreed with
arguments that he’s attempting to stifle free speech or to make this issue all
about race.
Friday night, the president touched off a firestorm at
a political rally within Alabama as he stated: ‘Wouldn't you like to witness
one of these owners of the NFL, when someone disrespects the flag, to state,
'Get that SOB---- off of the field.'
League Commissioner R. Goodell and owners of the NFL were
amongst the first ones to disagree with his remarks.
However, by kickoff Sunday, an overwhelming response
by NFL players was on full display, with most locking arms or kneeling within
the playing of the national anthem.
On Sunday, Trump continuously pushed for an end to
this kneeling, begun last year by C. Kaepernick, then a quarterback with the
San Francisco 49ers, to protest police brutality to African-Americans.
Marc Short (the director of legislative
affairs at the White House), on “Fox News Sunday,” argued that NFL players have
their First Amendment right to kneel, ‘yet NFL owners additionally have a right
to fire these players.’
Plus, he stated that he did not think the president
“re-opened racial wounds.”
Also, Short appeared to defend the president for
tweeting on Saturday that he had rescinded Stephen Curry’s White House
invitation that honored his team’s NBA championship in 2017, after he suggested
one previous day that he would not go.
Mnuchin and Short each seemed to attempt to frame this
issue as something bigger than the president’s views.
Marc Short argued that coaches in high school around the
country are being punished for leading their NFL players in prayer.
‘It’s about respect for our first-responders and
military in our country,’ argued Mnuchin.
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