Jeffress: NFL Players Should Thank God They Live in the U.S. Where They Can Disrespect Our Flag Without Being Jailed
RUSH EXCERPT:
GUILFOYLE: "Welcome back to this special edition of “Hannity.” An American tradition is to watch football on thanks giving day, but one player chose to bring politics into the game. As you can see, Olivier Vernon for the New York giants took a knee during the national anthem, something he’s been doing for several games now. President Trump responded on Twitter saying “Can you believe that the disrespect for our country, or fly, or anthem continues without penalty to the players. The commissioner has lost control of the hemorrhaging league. Players are the boss.” Earlier this week, the president called out the NFL. He tweeted 'The NFL is now thinking about a new idea, keeping teams in the locker room during the national anthem. That’s almost as bad as kneeling. When will the highly paid commissioner finally get tough and smart? This issue is killing her league.' Joining us now with reaction is Fox News contributor, Robert Jeffress and Fox News contributor David Webb. David, I’ll begin with you. It is us the right move for the president to continue to call out the NFL, call at the players, call out the commissioner for their unpatriotic actions?"
WEBB: "It absolutely is. The president is winning on the issue. Cultural Americans and see the anthem and the flag is one. We stand for the anthem, we face the flag once flown for those men and women. The subjective ideas around his tweeting is just that. The NFL is paying another price. We’ve done the business many times over the years. The NFL is an image and advertising which means as you look at playoff numbers, you look at sales, you look at costs costs, or losing their business. The players are affecting their business and the ignorance and the uninformed part of this. March on lynch, he stand for the Mexican anthem. If you take him out of the celebrity bubble and he is arrested in Mexico, he will be treated significantly differently than he would as a celebrity. Two of those and if all players, I’ve so this for weeks on my show and I’ll say it again. If you really want to go back to Colin Kaepernick, and you really want to process police brutality as you see it, then turn around and take any in front of a police officer, not to the flag in the anthem."
GUILFOYLE: "There is such a disconnect in terms of messaging here and these unpatriotic displays. The viewers don’t like it, ratings are sliding, all of the above. It’s more like grandstanding."
JEFFRESS: "I think it is and I think there’s a bigger issue here. Whether it’s calling out Levar Ball is the president and earlier this week and now calling out the NFL, I think President Trump is touching on a very important issue in America right now and that’s a lack of gratitude. These NFL players ought to be thinking God every day that they live in a country not only where they can earn millions of dollars every year, but they can disrespect our flag without being thrown in prison or worse as they would if they lived in China or North Korea. Contrary to what the left would tell you, this is not a racial issue. This is a grateful issue. It’s an issue I’m glad the president is hitting head on. The fact is that if all Americans were grateful for the good things god and others have done for us, I think you would see a lot of the negativity in our country dissipate overnight. I think our president is showing great moral leadership on this topic."
