Capitol Report
By State Representative, Leon D. Young
Leon D. Young
Donald Trump, once again, finds himself embroiled in another controversy virtually of his own making. The president has demanded an apology from ESPN after the network’s Jemele Hill called him a “white supremacist.”
Ms. Hill, an ESPN host with a history of speaking her mind, recently lashed out at Trump in a series of Tweeter posts, called the president a “white supremacist” who is unfit to serve in the White House. Ms. Hill didn’t mince words about her feelings toward the president or the impact she thinks he’s had on the nation, “Trump is the most ignorant, offensive president of my lifetime,” she wrote. “His rise is the direct result of white supremacy. Period.”
In goes without saying that Hill’s Tweets didn’t go over well with the Donald. Trump took to Twitter to demand that ESPN “apologize for untruth,” saying the Disney-owned sports network “is paying a really big price for its politics” and claiming viewers are dumping the network in “RECORD” numbers.
In a bigger context, Donald Trump really has some nerve in demanding an apology. After all, this is that guy who has never admitted that he’s EVER done anything wrong in his life, much less insulted anyone with his late-night Tweets. Really … is this guy serious???
Since taking office, Trump has shown that he has no basic guilt about anything and will gladly fling virtual poop at whoever has angered him. The list is endless:
• In Trump’s announcement speech (June 2015) he stated, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. … They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
• Trump attacked Senator John McClain’s war heroism when he quipped: “He’s a war hero because he was captured.” “I like people that weren’t captured, OK?”
• Furious over Megyn Kelly’s legitimate questions during a GOP presidential debate, Trump stated in a CNN interview: “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.”
• And, we all remember Trump’s reluctance to condemn white supremacists in the aftermath of the Charlottesville riots. He was the only national political figure to spread blame for the “hatred, bigotry and violence” that resulted in the death of one person to “many sides.”
At the end of the day, I find myself in complete agreement with CNN anchor Don Lemon when he told TMZ Sports that Trump should rethink his apology demand:
“I think when the president worked for NBC at ‘The Apprentice’ and he said that Barack Obama was not born here and called Barack Obama racist, when he apologizes for that then maybe ESPN (Jemele Hill) should apologize.”