CNN’s Don Lemon continued his obsession with President Trump, devoting a section of his nightly broadcast to claim that Trump is “demanding forced patriotism” on Americans, like a dictator would.
Lemon addressed the furore surrounding Trump’s decision to withdraw an invitation to the Philadelphia Eagles to attend the White House after several members of the team said they had no intention of attending.
Lemon argued that because no Eagles players took a knee for the national anthem, it is Trump who is being disrespectful.
“Facts matter. So, here are the facts. Not one single Eagles’ player took a knee during the regular season. Not one. Not one single Eagles player stayed in the locker room during the anthem. Not one. Who is being disrespectful here?” Lemon posited.
“Who is stomping all over the values we hold dear as Americans? The values, the freedoms that Americans have fought and died for. You know who is doing that? It’s the person who’s lying to you about the Eagles’ players.” the CNN host continued.
“The person whose lied to you well over 3,000 time in the past 501 days. The person who is demanding forced patriotism just as autocrats have done for centuries. That’s none other than Donald J. Trump, the president of the United States.” Lemon spewed.
Trump has been chastised for canceling the invitation:
There are a lot of people on the team that have plenty of different views. The men and women that wanted to go should’ve been able to go. It’s a cowardly act to cancel the celebration because the majority of the people don’t want to see you. To make it about the anthem is foolish
— Torrey Smith (@TorreySmithWR) June 4, 2018
It seems, however, that the reason Trump canceled the invitation was that it appears only quarterback Nick Foles planned to attend the ceremony, according to NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo.
Breaking from @realDonaldTrump #Eagles #SuperBowl #nationalanthem pic.twitter.com/bkb4BnLYPh
— Ed Henry (@edhenry) June 4, 2018
Press Secretary Sarah Sanders clashed yesterday with reporters, charging that The Eagles were staging a political stunt:
Sarah Sanders: “The Eagles are the ones who tried to changed their commitment at the eleventh hour … if this wasn’t a political stunt by the Eagles franchise, then they wouldn’t have planned to attend the event and then backed out at the last minute” https://t.co/M1Iji1b114
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) June 5, 2018
“There were 80 members of the Eagles’ organization that RSVPd and committed to attend this event as recently as Friday as well as over 1,000 fans of the Eagles’ organization,” Sanders said. “The Eagles, are the ones that tried to change their commitment at the 11th hour and the president frankly thinks that the fans deserve better than that and therefore we changed the ceremony to be a focus on celebrating our great country.”
“I this wasn’t a political stunt by the Eagles’ franchise then they wouldn’t have planned to attend the event and backed out at the last minute,” Sanders noted.
“If it wasn’t a political stunt then they wouldn’t have attempted to reschedule the visit when they knew the president was going to be overseas and if this wasn’t a political stunt they wouldn’t have waited until Monday, well after 1,000 of their fans had traveled and taken time out of their schedules to offer only a tiny handful of representatives to attend the event.” Sanders further urged.
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