President Barack Obama says the NFL quarterback who is refusing to stand for the national anthem is the latest in a long line of professional athletes who have exercised their constitutional right to make a statement about social issues.
The president was asked at a news conference Monday about Colin Kaepernick’s protest gesture. Obama said he has no doubt that the San Francisco 49ers player is sincere and “cares about some real, legitimate issues.”
Kaepernick has been heavily criticized since starting his silent protest. He’s said it’s not an anti-American gesture but a means to bring attention to racial injustice.
Obama says he hasn’t paid close attention to the matter. But he adds approvingly that Kaepernick has generated more national conversation about “issues that need to be talked about.”
(AP)
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10 Responses
I expected Obama to say he too would sit. What a failed presidency.
And this guy is the PRESIDENT of the US?
For shame!
PS What if he wasn’t black?
That guy with the big hair kneeling…isnt that rt/charlie hall??
#3 He looks like rt, charlie hall, and coffee addict.
Wrong venue for message!
why should this surprise us,after all this traitorous make believe president sat in Rev.Wright’s church for over 20 years where at the end of every sermon that traitorous swine declared “in this church we don’t say “God bless America” we say God damn America
I’ve heard that Obama does not put his hand over his heart when the National Anthem is played. Every country does things that its citizens may disagree with, but you would expect the head of a country and a citizen who is probably making millions of dollars a year to show some hakoras hatov. If these people were in any other country, they would be nothing.
Besides being wrong this president is stupid. Because now we’ll probably have a few more dead cops.
Putting your hand over your heart doesn’t make you an uber-patriot, any more than wearing an American flag lapel pin or flying the biggest American flag your local zoning ordinance will allow. I disagree with Kaepernick’s choice of ways to show his concern over the ways Afro-Americans are treated by police as much as I disagree with some truly misguided rabbonim demonstrating against the government of EY. However, I strongly believe that both have an absolute constitutional right to convey their beliefs in any way they choose. The President did not express support for Kaepernick’s position, only his right to demonstrate any way he wanted. We have a candidate for President who has a love affair with the 2nd amendment but apparently has no qualms about stripping some citizens of their first Amendment rights.
#7:
“I’ve heard that Obama does not put his hand over his heart when the National Anthem is played.”
Well, besides having no brain, he apparently has no heart either.