That is my opinion of the president of the United States. 45th we could add on to that the way he has chosen to express his masculinity, both in sexual conquests and accusations of violence against women and his bullying antics in the boardroom. He lives vicariously through things like football players, through soldiers in war, and to me that is the part of trounced trumps speech in alabama last friday where he demonized nfl players for practicing dissent in terms of protesting racial inequality in the legal Justice System in an effort to distract us from other issues in the world. I think the part of that speech we forget when he opines for the day when there was more dramatic brain injury in football. He said the game has been to soft. I would remind people this is again he did not play. It is something he was to the vicariously through the violence on the field. Because it is not more violent, he is dissatisfied with the product. I think that is where he upset the nfl players, but he upset the nfl owners as well. Host one of the points is that the flag represents america. These are wellpaid athletes. They should salute america for all of its faults and protests in other ways. Guest that is what people say about it. I would remind folks they not protesting the anthem or the flag. They are practicing peaceful dissent to point out the gaps between the promises the flag represents and the lived experiences of black americans in the country. Theyre trying to make people a little uncomfortable. They are trying to make people confront the racism that exists. If we had a legitimate president in this country, they would be trying to listen to these concerns were and have a National Discussion about it instead of diverting the discussion into one about them not being patriotic. He was actually trying to listen to what they were trying to say. I would argue nfl owners are culpable in the fact that this discussion has been hijacked and instead of being one about the issues these players are trying to raise. Now it is about who is more patriotic, who does or does not respect the troops. The nfl owners are saying protest is patriotic. Donald trump is saying stand or die. Meanwhile you have these players like Michael Bennet and Malcolm Jenkins saying wait a minute, this is not the debate we wanted to have. Host Colin Kaepernick is not playing this year. Is that why . Guest i think that is connected to it. I am in communication with a lot of these players. One of the reasons they kept the protests going it was only about nine players for trumps speech. The reason they were keeping it going was partially in memory of Colin Kaepernick and the belief he was not playing was to be a shot against the bow to ensure they are compliant. They have behaved themselves as your resented that. Sunday it also had to do with charlottesville and the feeling that they had to use their platform to Say Something about the world. Host the Golden State Warriors disinvited from the white house. Steph curry had his comments posted on the Sports Illustrated website. Remember the president works for us. Not vice versa. We elected him. He does not just work for his constituents and his base. He works for every citizen. Once you take that office you have to do what is best for the entire country. Sure, you will have policies that align with your party but that is not the point. Respectfully, mr. Trump, the point is this. You are the president , you represent all of us, dont divide us. Bring us together. Guest we couldnt be having these same discussions about puerto rico instead of athletes and the anthem. The same issues are all there. The society of demonizing, destroying, dividing people and distracting people from the real issues. All the tweets from trump about puerto rico, what is left out of that equation is 55 of the people in puerto rico dont have drinkable water now. That should be the only focus of the president of the United States. He is still tweeting about players needing to stand up during the anthem. This is not where his head should be. What these players are trying to on a very Grassroots Level is engage with local law enforcement, district attorneys, and community activists. I dont think donald trump wants to have the discussion because it would upset his base so much to admit racism exists in the is an issue in the United States. You are not allowed to just the president of your base. Host cheryl is joining us on the republican line from alabama. Good morning. Caller i just wanted to say that he is just talking about your speaker is just talking about one side of the nation. He should have listened to cal thomas, your guest that was on before him. Everybody dont take his opinion. That is all i wanted to say. Guest thank you. I do appreciate the call. I want to give a shout out to bruce maxwell, also from alabama who plays for the oakland as and became the first player to take a knee in major league baseball. Alabama produces tremendous folks on all sides of the political divide. I listened to cal thomas and what he had to say. I come at this from a different point of view. I do think protesting during the anthem is a completely legitimate, peaceful form of protest. I am exhausted the president so angry at nfl players engaging in peaceful protest but says fine people march with swastikas. Host who is steve kerr tell the president what to do . Guest this is where we get into a big problem. Who am i, who is cal thomas, who is bridget from alabama, we all have the right to tell the president what to do. He works for us. Donald trump is not the ceo of america and we are his workers. He works for us. I think donald trump, because he gets this dynamic backwards ends up in a lot of the problems we are in now. He only plays to his good workers, his base, and not as bad workers that dared to criticize him. Host for the First Time Since the Kennedy Center honors were started a president will , not host the on ice or the attendants or be an honoree. Where is all this going to lead with this president . Guest he needs to have a much thicker skin. Although if you look at the last 50 years, i dont know why we would expect him to be different. He disinvited the warriors only after some players said they would not attend. Steve kerr said i wanted to talk to the players about attending because he thought that would be good for the country. Maybe we could have an Honest Exchange of ideas. I think any president would have jumped at that for the Media Opportunity to say, look at me reaching across the aisle to share ideas. Instead of just demonizing somebody. He would not do that. With the Kennedy Center, he only made that decision after the legendary tv producer norman lear said he would not show if trump was there. I think for him to actually say i am rubber, you are glue i would not accept this kind of behavior from my nineyearold son that i feel like the president exhibits. Host from florida, good morning. Caller good morning. I got a couple of comments. I really dont understand where mr. Trump gets off on telling anybody what is patriotic. You do realize he took five deferments to not go to vietnam . Another point, this man made fun of john mccain, a war hero, a man who had balls enough to get into a plane to go to vietnam. He got shot down and spent hell in hanoi. That is a piece of crap right there, anybody that would do that. I dont know where he gets off. Host thanks for the call. There are reports of the president mimicking john mccain because of his injuries , his arms that were broken. Guest were not just talking about Donald Trumps deferments 40 years ago, just like we are not talking about the fact that in 2011 there is a tweet from donald trump defending the burning of the american flag, this thing he now says we have to respect no matter what. It is his actions this week that call his patriotism into question. One is mocking john mccain. The second one is as recently as this weekend there is a fundraising text going out to trump donors where he has his hand over his heart and the flag and he has a message about giving to the campaign. Emergency donations, all the rest of it. He is using the anthem as a fundraising pitch while telling nfl players they are demeaning the anthem by taking a knee. Host our guest is dave zirin, Sports Editor of the nation magazine. David is calling in. Jacksonville, florida. Independent line. Caller good morning. Thank you to your guest. There is no getting around it. Trump is probably one of the most vile and despicable excuses for a human being we have ever come across. He actually had the nerve in that speech where he was talking about they were not hit hard enough, he said people were not watching nfl because they were watching him even though we were , going through hurricanes and stopping games were canceled. I can remember that players used to be in the locker room when the National Anthem was being played. Is it true that the pentagon and National Guards were paying nfl owners for the players to be out there . Guest terrific call, and answer to that is yes, yes, and yes. It is interesting because we speak about players coming out as if it is this old custom in the United States, a hallowed ritual that extends back to world war ii and the greatest generation. That is the way it is discussed. It harkens back all the way to 2009. That is as far back as it goes. Before that, nfl players were in the locker room. Then there was a commercial partnership between the department of defense and the National Football league where the dod paid the nfl. This was uncovered by republican senators, jeff flake and john mccain. It is this sort of thing that speaks to the nfls relationship with politics in general. Despite what donald trump says, the nfl is not some progressive, liberal institute of social justice. That is not what the nfl is. They are run by some of the most conservative billionaires in the United States. They are not trying to stand up for racial justice. What theyre trying to do is save their product in the face of a president who seems to have got off the rails. Host dave zirins books include a peoples history of the sport to the United States. How owners are running the games ruining the games we love. Also the editor and producer of a number of documentaries including, not just a game, race, power, and american sports. Lets go to matt. Joining us from new york. Good morning. Thank you for waiting. Caller good morning. Ever since i got on hold, so many good points were made. I kind of have feelings on both sides of the issue. For starters, what your guest just said about your owners being republican billionaires, that may or may not be true, but what is true is they bow from intense pressure from the left. The nfl, along with many other byinesses has been pressured a leftwing that incubates radical ideas and University Systems and pushes them and forces them. They politicize everything. They politicize football. I am a trump supporter, but his comments were inappropriate. He is not a disciplined politician. The people knew that before the elected him. This is about politics on the football field. That people dont want politics on the football field. I dont express my political views at work. They not allowed to celebrate in the end zone. They are not allowed to wear certain things in protest to if an nfl player was making a political protest against abortion, would people be fighting for his free speech . Host if the election was held today, would you vote for donald trump again . Caller i would. Guest first of all when players , protest during the anthem, they are not protesting at work. There is nothing in the bargaining contract that says they need to stand for the anthem, so they are not protesting at work. They are there to play football. They are out there on a voluntary basis. They have only been going out there since 2009. I really think that argument kind of falls apart. The second thing is you have to take a big leap to say the National Football league is somehow bowing and being shaped by leftist pressure. This is the nfl for goodness sake. There is a team in the Nations Capital that is named after a racial slur. It, even not change though there is no way that team could be born today named after a racial slur. You look at issues from minority hiring to who is in the owners box, the rights of players, and to call this a leftwing operation is the height of absurdity. The last thing i would say is to think players have brought politics into the nfl when they are doing formal partnerships with the department of defense to support the wars overseas and buttress military recruitment. That is like looking at the sky and saying it is green. It does not fit reality. Host the fragile, toxic masculinity of donald trump. His comments about the nfl players revealed. Help devices and narcissistic the president really is. You can read it online at the nation. Did you come up with that headline . Guest i did. I was really upset after that speech. I know a lot of these players. When he said the s. O. B. Line, i was upset. I know the moms of some of these players and they deserve better. [video clip] President Trump i have so many friends that are owners. They are in the box. I have spoken to a couple of them. They said we are in a situation where we have to do something. I think they are afraid of their players, you want to know the truth. I think it is disgraceful. They have to be tough and smart. You look at the ratings. The ratings are way down. The stadiums i have seen a couple of stadiums over the last few weeks. There are a lot of empty seats. I could not even believe it. Host the president on fox and friends. Why do you think he sent those tweets out last week and make those comments in alabama . Guest i think because of the disastrous legislative agenda, the failure to repeal obamacare, the crisis in puerto rico, the crisis involving tom price and all of his cabinet officials who seem to be taking private planes on the public dime, private enough servers involving jarred and ivanka, the list of issues is so high that he wants to distract us from. This is what he always does. He plays to peoples worst instincts. What he says to his base is i can argue nothing in the way of political reform but i can offer , you somebody to hate. I can offer you someone to resent. I can offer you bigotry. That is what he does. There will be a day i hope when his base splinters. Wait a minute, this is a grifter trying to sell us a line of hooey and we need to stand up against it. Host we will go to democrats line. Caller good morning. Im doing all right. I agree with everything you are saying. I have not read your column, but i will start reading it after this. Guest thank you. Caller you are right about a lot of things. You know a lot about baseball, football, basketball, we aspired to be pro athletes. It is a shame our president has taken that from us. I like to say that those people that get to the pros, they go through not only a College Education but a lot of heart aches and injuries. I dont know the odds exactly, but im sure it is high that a lot of people dont make it there. Host thanks. We will get a response. Guest it is absolutely true. The odds of actually making it as a professional athlete are utterly middle school miniscule, but for so many folks it is their only shot out of poverty. One of the concerns about the future of the nfl is that the only people on the field will be people who try to get into the world of football because of poverty. The more we know about brain injuries, the more middleclass families will try to keep their young kids out of the sports. That is a huge existential fear for the National Football league. One of donald trump shout out to tulsa, oklahoma, too because , again that is one of the , cities that inspired this athletic revolt after the killing of Terence Crutcher. She was exonerated for killing him on camera and found innocent not is already exonerated. And it was videotaped in this upsets people we do not have this justice. This discussion needs to be about Terence Crutcher and his family and not about donald trump. Host helen in lake charles, louisiana. Republican line. Caller thank you for having me on. I hope i can make my thoughts known in a more pleasant way. It is unbelievable to me the disrespect for our president of the United States is so bad. I have never seen this in my 70 years. I am still working. I live in a Multicultural Family neighborhood. I have no bias or prejudice against my neighbors. I love my neighbors. Again the reason i am against , the nfl players not playing and protesting is because it is in our taxpayers dollars and on the nfl owners because i at my job cannot do it i want to do when i want to do it. Again for people to just malign , our president , i would please i believe in a respect for the president and i would please call on young people cannot make faces while i am talking and to not do all this but to be , respectful and say it in a more respectful manner for president. He has fundraisers and i do think it is a foreign entity and i do not necessarily believe it is russia trying to tear this country apart. I had to read in my senior year in high School Masters of defeat. I encourage you to read it because it says this country will fall from within. Host thank you. Guest i am going to turn to qyuote Gregg Popovich of the coach of the san antonio spurs, who said i have respect for the office of the presidency, but if you want me to respect to as an individual, that respect has to be earned. Im sorry, but Donald Trumps behavior over the course of his life, from bragging from sexually assaulting women in the 1990s, where that speech where he called nfl players s. O. B. s and he used the word. He made a profane speech that targeted the mothers of nfl players, you will never have my respect. His actions toward puerto rico, though he speaks about a mayor the right now is wading to water with a bullhorn, trying to figure out who is dead and he insults her from his golf course . No, you do not have an respect. This is why 48 of the country thinks he should be impeached, according to the latest ppp poll. This does not have to do with the fact that he is republican, this has to do it his behavior and the behavior of his cabinet and it degrades the office and this country. That is where this anger is coming from. I would repeat, please, lets not traffic in fiction, they are not protesting on their job. They are out there on a voluntary basis for the anthem, and it has only been asked since 2009. They are being asked to take part in a political ritual. Many people might think it is a beautiful ritual, and that is fantastic, but they have the right to express themselves in the confines of that ritual. That is protected speech. Host we will go to john in mechanicsburg pennsylvania. , good morning. Caller thanks for taking the call. I just wanted to say it is clear that the nfl, party part of the entertainment, and the horse and of our country, and the Entertainment Industry just like espn and your guest, who is a sports reporter, there is a lot of leftwing, selfappointed experts on social justice. The nfl is that way now. The espns of the world are that way, and this guest clearly is coming from the left saying i believe in all the left agenda, anything that disagrees with agenda, i willr write sports columns about it and point out everyone is wrong unless they are left. Host your response. Guest that is not true. I think what we are so divided in this country right now where people dismiss ideas and say, that is leftwing propaganda. I am not talking about leftwing propaganda. I am talking about Terence Crutchers body in the streets and no justice for his family. I am talking about a woman who weighed less than 100 pounds, who called the police herself and was killed by police in front of her home. In front of her children. That is one of the things that inspired Michael Bennet to get out there. They should not have to be a right and left issue. This is about right or wrong, and that is what these players are trying to do. Raise the issue of criminal justice and have a National Conversation about it and the fact the are getting demonized by the president instead of trying to engage in a debate of what better policing would look like, that is a shame in the work. D the sin at host what will happen today . Guest i think there will be a lot of players who link arms, some who kneel, and some networks say they will not show then there them issue at all. I think the nfl will try to move on from this era i think you will still have nine or 10 players who will want to use the space to raise bigger issues. Host rodney, democrats line. Quick question . Caller i had a comment, actually a solution to this. This is not capitulating at all in my opinion. The players kneel at the end of the game. Neil at the end zone. They can kneel in silence at the end of the game and that can expose the issue they want to address. Guest some players do that anyway to say thank god they did not get hurt during the game. That is a postgame prayer ritual some players do. I will tell everybody, it is not in anthem protest, it is a protest during the anthem to raise attention to these issues. I think that is the part that has gotten this attention. We would not be nearly having this discussion we are having without it. This idea of protesting during the anthem is something that has to and will remain. It was so interesting. We dont have time to talk about it but people should look up john brennan, the former head of the cia and the statement he issued yesterday describing that kneeling during the anthem as a patriotic act and counterposing it with the actions of trump, particularly regarding puerto rico, and saying that is not a patriotic act. The true patriots are the people kneeling during the anthem. All i have to say about that is these are strange times in which we are living and i would encourage people to look at the substance of what people are protesting and not just the words flying back and forth. Host your work is Available Online at thenation. Com. Dave zirin, the Sports Editor. Thank you for being with us. Washington journal, led every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Monday morning, the new Supreme Court term begins monday. Lawrence hurley, Supreme Court correspondent for reuters will give a preview of upcoming cases. The heritage foundations Bruce Klinger discusses north korea. Maya mcguiness, president of the committee for a responsible federal budget will talk about the cost of the republican tax plan. Watch cspans washington journal, live at 7 00 eastern monday morning. Join the discussion. Night on the communicators. Completelyopen up a new wave of innovation in the market. You will get extremely fast speed, see you can use 100 times with you use on your smart phone or your tablet. Senior Vice President talks about competition in the wireless industry, net neutrality, and 5g deployment. She is every by Technology ReporterMargaret Harding mcgill. You think the u. S. Has the right the Regulatory Framework for 5g and making sure we are first in getting it out there . We have done a good job on spectrum. Opened of highfrequency millimeters spectrum for the industry. We have done a good job on fiber. We have private industry doing a good job getting fiber out to where it needs to be. We could work on the infrastructure part. In order to get 5g to the homes the way i described, we need to put a lot of different small fills all over the country, many more than we have today. Then i think we will be in a good position. Watch the communicators on cspan 2. Joining us on newsmakers this week is senator mike lee, republican of utah, a member of the Senate Judiciary committee. And joining us with the questioning is neils lesniewski , who covers congress for cq roll call, and reporter for the wall street journal brent kendall. Senator, muddying the first monday in the start of a new octo t