lets you know that he really doesn t have a, you know, a touch with reality. like he just is throwing this pardon thing out because he s getting it s a buzz word for him. he capitalizes on buzz words and uses it to change the narrative. if you want to change the narrative, let s sit let s talk about the actual cause of the protest. he s not one time sat down and said, hey, let s address this issue. hey, look, guys, i know you don t want to be unpatriotic by kneeling, so let s talk about what you really want to talk about. all this would have gone away because an open dialogue into what we actually are trying to get accomplished in our communities would have been had by the president and these players and the owners and the nfl in general. just going around the issue offering pardons and trying to hit these buzz words and these key topics to make people like you, that s not the answer. that s not the answer. but that s what, you know, that s what donald trump specializes in. guys, i
impromptu press conferences. they re not formal press conferences but he is taking questions. i think he s trying to set the agenda and frame the story going into the singapore summit. brian, thank you. as always, don t forget to catch brian tomorrow morning on his show, reliable sources at 11:00 a.m. eastern here on cnn. president trump and pardons. this week, the commander in chief calls on nfl football players who he has criticized for kneeling during the national anthem to give him names of people they think deserve a presidential pardon. we ll talk about that next live in the cnn newsroom. what s critical thinking like? a basketball costs $14. what s team spirit worth? (cheers) what s it worth to talk to your mom? what s the value of a walk in the woods? the value of capital is to create, not just wealth, but things that matter.
if they don t want to be here, i don t want them. joining us now is cnn political commentator mark lamon hill and also a retired nfl player. ephraim, let me start with you and ask you about this other comment that the president made earlier on that same day about trying to reach out to nfl players who maybe are kneeling for the national anthem and asking them who they think he should pardon, who s been treated unfairly in the justice system. how do you view that comment? first of all, i think it s ridiculous. the fact that you re going to reach out to these nfl players that you verbally assaulted for over a year now to ask them who they think should be pardoned in the prison system, like that was what they were protesting anyway. they were protesting the fact that the police officers were
using force in our neighborhoods and they weren t being prosecuted. right? it s all about shooting unarmed minorities and nothing happening to the people who were sworn to protect us. that s what the protest was about. it wasn t about prison reform, which we do need to have, but those two things don t even go together, so the fact that he s found some success by pardoning someone who dearly needed to be pardoned on behalf of kim kardashian, no less, he s going to use that one good thing in the eyes of the public to now reach out to the nfl players and say, hey, do you guys have any friends in prison? who do you want me to set free so we can all come together? it makes no sense. when i heard it, i couldn t even believe he said it. mark, could it be an olive branch? no. because the premise of his olive branch is, one, a misrepresentation of what the players are asking for, as my brother just said. he s saying these guys are
him every week for a year to check on his way who passed away in 2011 and now we learn that kraft called trump s mission divisive. how much does that surprise you? because he took issue with the statement in september, brooke, i would say i don t think as much. and i think it also says more about the president than bob kraft. he s an equal opportunity alienateor. it doesn t matter if you re a friend of his or not, he s going to alienate you. bob kraft is one of seven owners who gave a million dollars to the inauguration ball. so i think it s a bottom line thing for these owners. and i do think any time you re taking nfl players and making them a proxy for patriotism and essentially making the public not buy their message about protesting police brutality, you ve got a problem if you re an nfl owner.