White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended President Donald Trump’s weekend remarks about NFL players taking a knee during the national anthem by saying that they should protest officers on the field, instead of the American flag.
“I think if the debate is really for them about police brutality, they should probably protest the officers on the field that are protecting them instead of the American flag,” Sanders said during a press briefing Monday.
The answer came in response to a reporter questioning why the president would take white nationalists at their word that their protests were about “heritage, not hate,” referring recent events in Charlottesville, Virginia, but “why is there this disparity about who gets to decide what protest is about?” the reporter asked.
WATCH: White House: If protests are about police, players should protest the officers who are on the field protecting them, instead of flag. pic.twitter.com/OJ8Sxk0OOl
Sanders later said she was not advocating that players protest on-field officers, and did not detail what such a protest would entail.
Speaking at a rally in Alabama Friday, Trump called for NFL owners to fire any players who kneel during the national anthem. “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag,” he said, “to say ‘get that son of a b–h off the field’ right now, out! He’s fired?'” The president went on to double down on those comments in subsequent tweets over the weekend.
“If a player wants the privilege of making millions of dollars in the NFL, or other leagues, he or she should not be allowed to disrespect our Great American Flag (or Country) and should stand for the National Anthem. If not, YOU’RE FIRED. Find something else to do!”
Sparked by the initial protest by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, NFL players, coaches, owners and commissioner Roger Goodell issued responses to the president’s comments and participated in widespread protests ahead of Sundays’ games, including kneeling, locking arms or even staying in the locker room during the singing of the anthem.
Sanders said during Monday’s press conference that she feels the focus has shifted away from Kaepernick’s original intent to protest issues of race and police brutality when asked “how is that not an issue of race?”
“I think the focus has long since changed and certainly the message in a lot of what has been communicated over these last several weeks through this process, through these protests by these players,” she replied.
Sports and Politics Don't Mix? History Says Otherwise (Photos)
With President Donald Trump's grousing over recent protests in the NFL, the debate over whether athletes should express their political views through the platform of sports has heated up once again. But contrary to what some might believe, the phenomenon of athletes protesting didn't begin with Colin Kaepernick. Read on as TheWrap delves into the long-term relationship between sports and politics.
At the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, Tommie Smith and John Carlos -- who'd taken the gold and bronze medalists in the 200-meter dash -- took to the winners podium and raised their fists above their heads in a silent protest against discrimination against African-Americans in the United States. "If I win I am an American, not a black American. But if I did something bad then they would say 'a Negro.' We are black and we are proud of being black," Smith said of the protest.
Boxing legend Muhammad Ali famously refused to serve in the U.S. military during the Vietnam war, noting, “Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs?" In 2005, President George W. Bush awarded Ali the Presidential Medal of Freedom, calling him "a fierce fighter and a man of peace."
Following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the United States led a boycott of the Summer Olympic Games in Moscow. The boycott would grow to 65 nations who refused to participate in the games.
Four years later, the USSR would return the favor, boycotting the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. "Chauvinistic sentiments and anti-Soviet hysteria are being whipped up in this country," the Soviet government said of the boycott, which 13 other communist countries would also join.
At the beginning of the 1995-1996 NBA season, Denver Nuggets point guard Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf decided that he wouldn't salute the American flag during the playing of the national anthem prior to games. The decision went unnoticed for some time; when NBA commissioner David Stern handed down a one-game suspension to the player. The NBA later reached a compromise, mandating that Abdul-Rauf stand for the anthem, but allowing him to close his eyes and face downward.
In 2014, following the death of Eric Garner after a confrontation with police in New York, Cleveland Cavaliers stars LeBron James and Kyrie Irving wore shirts emblazoned with the phrase "I Can't Breathe" -- Garner's reported last words -- while warming up for a game against the Brooklyn Nets. Nets players Jarrett Jack, Alan Anderson, Deron Williams and Kevin Garnett also donned the shirts.
In 2016, then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick opted not to stand during the national anthem, saying, "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color ... To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."
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From Muhammad Ali to Colin Kaepernick, a timeline of protesting athletes
With President Donald Trump's grousing over recent protests in the NFL, the debate over whether athletes should express their political views through the platform of sports has heated up once again. But contrary to what some might believe, the phenomenon of athletes protesting didn't begin with Colin Kaepernick. Read on as TheWrap delves into the long-term relationship between sports and politics.
