and inclusion. the values that we embrace as an organization. here s the background. this all started friday when president trump blasted football players who refused to stand for the national anthem. wouldn t you love to see one of these nfl owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, get that son of a [ bleep ] off the field right now, out, he s fired. [cheering and applauding] he s fired! yeah, a lot of folks there cheering. a lot of folks not cheering that thought. on saturday, some league owners shot back, calling the president s remarks callous and offensive. nfl commissioner roger goodell, critical statement said, divisive comments like these demonstrate an unfortunate lack of respect for the nfl, our great game, and all of our players, and a failure to understand the overwhelming force for good our clubs and players represent in our communities. the president shot back,
players who were taking a stand by taking a knee in protest, in peaceful protest. a lot of folks on twitter are asking why did we not see the same level of passion from the president in response to the neo-nazis and kkk supporters who were marching in charlottesville, virginia last month. he did not condemn those protesters who were exercising their free speech rights. the same way that he has condemned these, again, mostly black players who are doing so now in the nfl. i should mention he s also been criticizing nba players who have spoken out against his comments. this is an issue that is not going away. we have several sports analysts who are predicting we will see more protests from players, including at tomorrow s games, nfl games, not fewer protests in response to the president s statement. back to you. athena jones, thanks.
say, racial injustice and inequality. the president doesn t want to hear it. he says, those football players who do so should be fired by nfl team owners. he said it at the rally on friday, he said it again on twitter on saturday. keeping this controversy going. even as nfl commissioner roger goodell weighed in in a surprising move, he called the president s comments divisive even though he didn t name president trump directly. so there is the nfl controversy, then the nba side. the president taking aim at steph curry, member of the championship golden state warriors team. on twitter saturday morning the president was apparently inspired or motivated or ticked off by a statement on the folks news morning show, fox and friends. 20 minutes after fox and friends mentioned that steph curry is thinking about skipping a white house visit, president trump tweeted and said the invitation had been withdrawn. we ve seen lots of prominent celebrities and athletes and ceos having to make these c
backlash when he said this on friday at a campaign rally in alabama. wouldn t you love to see one of these nfl owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, get that son of a [ bleep ] off the field right now, out, he s fired. [cheering and applauding] he s fired! players and owners immediately began pushing back, but the president refused to budge. on safturday he tweeted if te player wants a 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. as if that were not enough, mr. trump on saturday also rescinded his invitation to the national basketball champs, the golden state warriors to visit the white house. he said it was because of star steph curry that was hesitating about attending so he disinvited the entire team.
it is about law enforcement officials getting away, even sometimes on camera, mistreating and sometimes killing egregiously innocent men without having a fair trial within our justice system. i don t understand the value in donald trump continually antagonizing nfl owners. i don t understand the value and trump continually antagonizing nfl players who are peacefully protesting something they perceive as an injustice. so, erica, speaking of these owners, several of them donated to the inaugural committee supporting president trump. they did release statements, stating that they were offended, backing their teams, of course, given the president s comments. but, again, is there a sense here that the president is hurting many of the people who initially supported him? well, let s be completely honest, george. i don t know if you saw the nfl statement thiey released today. that was the quintessential nonstatement. that was the quintessential