Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee kneeled during a speech on the House floor Monday as a show of support for NFL players who demonstrated this weekend against President Trump.
As The Daily Caller reports, Jackson Lee said during remarks on the House floor...
“There is no basis in the First Amendment that says that you cannot kneel before the national anthem or in front of the flag,”
Jackson Lee, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, took issue with a speech Trump gave on Friday in which he called on NFL owners to fire players who refused to stand for the national anthem.
Jackson Lee claimed that the “son of a bitch” remark was a racist comment by Trump.
“There is no regulation that says that these young men cannot stand against the dishonoring of their mothers by you calling them ‘fire the son of a b.’ You tell me which of those children’s mothers is a son of a b. That is racism. You cannot deny it. You cannot run for it, and I kneel in honor of them,” Jackson Lee said.
And in case you wondered why she specifically decided to 'take a knee' during her House Floor speech, this is what she said...
"...I kneel because I’m going to stand against racism. I kneel because I will stand with those young men, and I’ll stand with our soldiers. And I’ll stand with America, because I kneel..."
Clear enough?
Jackson Lee was not alone in her disdain as The Hill reports a second House Democrat kneeled on the House floor on Tuesday to show support for NFL players protesting police brutality.
Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) took a knee behind his podium at the end of a floor speech denouncing President Trump’s attacks on athletes who have been kneeling during the national anthem to draw attention to law enforcement’s treatment of African Americans.
“I think today, taking a knee is becoming a broader sign of patriotism and respect for our country,” Pocan said.
.@Repmarkpocan displays word cloud from President Trump's tweets and kneels at end of his remarks. #TakeAKnee pic.twitter.com/Dnjq7AnxRV
— CSPAN (@cspan) September 26, 2017
Moments later on the House floor, Rep. Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.) defended Trump for calling on NFL players to stand during the national anthem.
“The president is right to publicly object to this disrespect to our flag and nation,” Mooney said.
“While we can disagree on politics and policies, we should not denigrate our flag in our national anthem.”
San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich went a little further than most, claiming on ESPN2’s “The Paul Finebaum Show” Monday that “people have to be made to feel uncomfortable,” specifically singling out white people.
“If you read some of the recent literature, you’ll realize there really is no such thing as whiteness, but we kind of made that up. That’s not my original thought, but it’s true,” Popovich said.
He added, “Because you were born white, you have advantages that are systemically, culturally, psychologically there. And they have been built up and cemented for hundreds of years. But many people can’t look at it. It’s too difficult.”