Jemele Hill Slams Giants’ Jaxson Dart: ‘What Is the Upside’ in Appearing at Trump’s Rally?

TRANSCRIPT:

HILL: "Well, sports and politics have always mixed. I mean, they‘ve mixed since the days of George Washington. What changed about this narrative of sports and politics not belonging together is when, frankly, black athletes started to show more agency and started to speak more out some of the conditions that people in their community were facing, or even some of the experiences that they had. That‘s when it became, 'Oh no, don‘t mix sports and politics.' In this particular case, this was an unforced error by Jaxson Dart. Again, Donald Trump is historically unpopular. You are the quarterback of the New York Giants. What was the point? What is the upside in appearing at this rally? Now, he has a right to support whoever he wants, but Abdul Carter has a right to criticize his support of that. And a lot of athletes, partly what makes them hesitant about talking about their political beliefs is that they don‘t want the blowback, and they don’t want the resistance and how people might feel about it. So, yeah, his teammate, who is a Muslim, who is a black man in America, had every right to question him about what that support means, especially when you are considered to be the face of the organization and the sort of default leader of the entire team."