Yesterday Donald Trump declared that NFL Players who expressed their personal convictions on the field should be fired.
By KEN BELSON
“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these N.F.L. owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, out, he’s fired,’ ” the president said at the rally, for Senator Luther Strange, who was appointed to the Senate this year and is facing Roy Moore in a Republican primary runoff.
He said the protests would stop if fans left games when players did not stand for the anthem. “The only thing you could do better is if you see it, even if it’s one player, leave the stadium.”
The comments, along with others about the safety of the game, triggered criticism from the league, the union and players. Some people urged more players to kneel or sit during the anthem at football stadiums on Sunday as a way to reinforce their First Amendment rights. Others urged more white players to stand with black players who have knelt or sat during the anthem.
Then today Trump tweeted:
BY BRANDON CARTER
NBA star LeBron James called President Trump a “bum” on Saturday after Trump said Stephen Curry was no longer welcome at the White House following the Golden State Warriors' championship victory.
“You bum @StephenCurry30 already said he ain't going! So therefore ain't no invite,” James tweeted. “Going to White House was a great honor until you showed up!”
Of course LeBron James is just the latest in a long list of would be honorees declining an invitation to the Trump White House or a Trump event, going back to Trump's Inauguration. The list includes some notable refusals. Please feel free to mention your own favorites.
I couldn’t agree more.
UPDATE:
The Twitter war continues to escalate’ as Donald Trump doubles down.
To Trump (and many of his supporter) disrespecting symbols is a sacrilege, while disrespecting the principals the republic was founded on, like the First Amendment right to free speech are less important. Their emotional attachment to symbols over substance is easy to exploit with emotional rhetoric that conflates symbols with country.
Now the Golden State Warriors have responded strongly to Trump’s dis-inviting Stephen Curry from visiting the White House:
BY JULIA MANCHESTER
The Golden State Warriors responded to President Trump's tweet Saturday withdrawing the team's invitation to visit the White House, announcing the team would instead spend their Washington, D.C. visit celebrating "equality, diversity and inclusion."
"While we intended to meet as a team at the first opportunity we had this morning to collaboratively discuss a potential visit to the White House, we accept President Trump has made it clear that we are not invited," the team said in a statement.
"We believe there is nothing more American than our citizens having the right to express themselves freely on matters important to them. We're disappointed that we did not have an opportunity during this process to share our views or have an open dialogue on issues impacting our communities that we felt would be important to raise," the statement read.
Trump’s support for the first amendment rights of white supremacists, contrasted with his rejection of an first amendment rights for sports figures, is something we shouldn’t ignore.
We have such a divisive President that he has even changed what visiting our White House during his tenure stands for. It used to be an honor. Not now. Not when Trump is the occupant.
The latest in Tell them to stand!the Twitter War. I’m almost live blogging this train-wreck.