Top Trump administration officials on Sunday were defending the president’s remarks this weekend about NFL players kneeling during the national anthem, disagreeing with arguments that Trump is trying to stifle free speech or make the issue about race.
“I think what the president is saying is that the owners should have a rule that players should have to stand in respect for the national anthem,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told ABC’s “This Week.” “This isn’t about Democrats. It’s not about Republicans. It’s not about race. It’s not about free speech. They can do free speech on their own time.”
Trump touched off a firestorm Friday night at a political rally in Alabama when he said: “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a b—- off the field right now.’ “
NFL owners and league Commissioner Roger Goodell were among the first to disagree with Trump’s remarks.
But by kickoff Sunday, the overwhelming response by players was of full display, with many kneeling or locking arms during the playing of the anthem.
Trump on Sunday continued to push for an end to the kneeling, started last year by Colin Kaepernick, then the San Francisco 49ers quarterback, to protest police brutality toward African-Americans.
“If NFL fans refuse to go to games until players stop disrespecting our Flag & Country, you will see change take place fast,” Trump tweeted. “Fire or suspend!”
Several minutes later, he tweeted: “…NFL attendance and ratings are WAY DOWN. Boring games yes, but many stay away because they love our country. League should back U.S.”
On “Fox News Sunday,” Marc Short, the White House director of legislative affairs, argued that players indeed have a First Amendment right to kneel, “but NFL owners also have the right to fire those players.”
And he said he didn’t think Trump had “re-opened racial wounds.”
Short also appeared to defend Trump for tweeting Saturday that he’d rescinded Golden State Warrior Stephen Curry’s invitation to a White House event honoring his team’s 2017 NBA championship, after Curry suggested a day earlier that he wouldn’t go.
“He’s the one who injected politics into the invitation to come to the White House,” Short said. “That is what the president is reacting to. The president said fine, don’t come.”
Short and Mnuchin each seemed to try to frame the issue as something larger than Trump’s views.
Short argued that high school coaches across the country are getting punished for leading their players in prayer.
“This is about respect for the military and first-responders in the country,” Mnuchin argued.
