{"id":85109,"date":"2017-10-01T17:45:13","date_gmt":"2017-10-01T21:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=85109"},"modified":"2017-10-01T17:45:13","modified_gmt":"2017-10-01T21:45:13","slug":"trump-on-nfl-players-very-important-to-stand-for-anthem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=85109","title":{"rendered":"Trump on NFL Players: &#8216;Very Important&#8217; to Stand for Anthem"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--more--><div id=\"attachment_85110\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/GetFile-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-85110\" class=\"size-full wp-image-85110\" src=\"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/GetFile-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/GetFile-2.jpg 600w, https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/GetFile-2-300x250.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-85110\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(AP)<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"artPgByline\">By\u00a0Todd Beamon<\/span><br \/>\nNEWSMAX<\/p>\n<p>President Donald Trump said Saturday that it was &#8220;very important&#8221; for NFL players to stand for the National Anthem during Sunday games and to &#8220;respect our flag and our country.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Trump posted on Twitter:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Very important that NFL players STAND tomorrow, and always, for the playing of our National Anthem. Respect our Flag and our Country!<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realDonaldTrump\/status\/914255264282480640?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 30, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"SandboxRoot env-bp-350\" data-twitter-event-id=\"0\"><\/div>\n<p>The president ignited a storm last week by calling on NFL owners to\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.newsmax.com\/Headline\/Trump-NFL-football-anthem\/2017\/09\/23\/id\/815314\/\"><strong>fire players<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0who refuse to stand for the anthem to protest police misconduct and other issues.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Wouldn&#8217;t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, &#8216;Get that son of a b&#8211;ch off the field right now,'&#8221; Trump told a crowd in Huntsville, Alabama. &#8220;He is fired. He&#8217;s fired!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>More than 200 players \u2014 joined by coaches and some team owners \u2014 responded with kneeling, standing arm-in-arm, remaining in locker rooms and issuing statements defending athletes and their First Amendment right to free expression.<\/p>\n<p>Response from fans have ranged from support to outright hostility to the protests.<\/p>\n<p>Trump has since doubled down on the initial comments, saying on Twitter that recalcitrant players should\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.newsmax.com\/Headline\/Trump-NFL-football-anthem\/2017\/09\/23\/id\/815314\/\"><strong>&#8220;find something else to do.&#8221;<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The president later tweeted thanks for National Hockey League players and fans standing for the anthem:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">19,000 RESPECTING our National Anthem! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/StandForOurAnthem?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#StandForOurAnthem<\/a>\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/czutyGaMQV\">pic.twitter.com\/czutyGaMQV<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realDonaldTrump\/status\/914310901855129601?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 1, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"resize-sensor\"><\/div>\n<p>In addition, NBC Sports commentator Bob Costas said Saturday that players should kneel after, not during, the National Anthem \u2014 since kneeling during &#8220;The Star-Spangled Banner&#8221; offends many people.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;To me, perhaps the most effective thing to do would be to stand for the national anthem, but the second the last note is struck, take a knee,&#8221; Costas told\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/shows\/smerconish\"><strong>CNN host Michael Smerconish<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It actually causes ambivalent feelings, at best, among many people who are sympathetic to the issue, but see the anthem as representing a lot of different things including the country&#8217;s ideals and aspirations.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The idea of linking protests, no matter how legitimate the issue you are protesting, directly to the National Anthem is not just offensive to the &#8216;love it or leave it&#8217; crowd,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.newsmax.com\/Politics\/Trump-NFL-stand-anthem\/2017\/09\/30\/id\/816876\/\">http:\/\/www.newsmax.com\/Politics\/Trump-NFL-stand-anthem\/2017\/09\/30\/id\/816876\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=85109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85109\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}