Capehart on Kapaernick: Trump ‘Ruined’ His Protest By Turning Attention to Flag

CAPEHART: “And also remember why Americans revere athletes. They are role models and people look to them to use their platforms for good. And what better good is there than to draw attention to the fact at the time that unarmed African-American men were being shot and killed by police. And Kaepernick started first sitting on the bench. A week after Philando Castile was killed in St. Paul, Minnesota, this was a very real issue to millions of Americans, not just African Americans, who were trying to understand and come to grips with what was happening. And he decided to sit. Another fellow, former member of the NFL who is also a member of the military, wrote an open letter to Colin Kaepernick, saying 'what you are doing is disrespectful.' They said, let’s meet. As a result of that meeting, Kaepernick learns the respectful thing to do was to kneel. That’s what members of the military do to honor the fallen. That is — that has all been obliterated and erased thanks to Donald Trump. He has turned it into reverence for the flag. You’re not respecting the flag when what Colin Kaepernick was doing was respecting the lives that had been lost at the hands of police and wanted to bring it to national attention. That’s an American thing to do, a freedom of speech thing to do. And the President, as has always been the case, has ruined it.”