Even Fox News Says Trump's NFL Comments Were Divisive
Reliably right-wing Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade took an uncharacteriscally critical stance of President Donald Trump on Monday morning, saying the president's comments on the NFL anthem protests only succeeded in making "everything worse."
Kilmeade was careful to note that the NFL anthem protests started under President Barack Obama, but he also thinks Trump added fuel to the fire by being so outspoken on this subject.
"The president overall in his remarks Friday and his tweet Saturday made everything worse," said Kilmeade, referencing Trump's suggestion in a speech Friday that any NFL player who kneels in protest is a "son of a bitch."
"Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, 'Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. He is fired,'" Trump said at Friday's rally.
The president continued to touch on the subject via Twitter over the course of the weekend.
"If NFL fans refuse to go to games until players stop disrespecting our Flag & Country, you will see change take place fast. Fire or suspend!" Trump tweeted Sunday morning.
In defiance of Trump, a number of NFL players and teams kneeled or stood arm-in-arm during the anthem on Sunday.
The first example of this happened at a game between the Jacksonville Jaguars and Baltimore Ravens, which took place in London.
Kilmeade said he was embarrassed that this happened in front of an international audience.
"It's embarrassing. The first game was at 9:30 a.m. Eastern time in England at Wembley Stadium, and the whole world got to see how divided we are, even when it comes to playing the national anthem," said Kilmeade.
Fox & Friends is rarely critical of Trump, which perhaps explains why Kilmeade's co-host, Ainsley Earhardt, quickly jumped in after her colleague dared to speak negatively about the president.
“Well, Brian, he is the voice for a lot of people out there," Earhardt said. "A lot of people agree with him and are scared to give their opinions."
Not everyone is so afraid. Piers Morgan, a longtime friend of Trump, was also quite critical of the president on Monday.
"To call the kneelers 'sons of bitches' was a disgraceful thing for the President of the United States to say about anyone, let alone some of the country’s greatest sportsmen," Morgan wrote in an op-ed for the Daily Mail. "By using such an ugly taunt, Trump let himself down, he let down the office of the presidency, and he let down the country."
Morgan said Trump owes all the players, and their mothers, a "heartfelt apology."
And Meghan Linsey, the country singer who took a knee after singing the national anthem on Sunday, also complained that Trump is upset about peaceful NFL protesters, yet "has nothing to say" about "white national terrorists [who] bring their tiki torches and cause this violence."
