ago, calling, you know, referring to those people who are kneeling during our anthem, calling them sons of bitches, do you see a racial element in that? look, you can see a racial element in every single thing that anybody does. i was wondering if you see it? no, i don t. i look at the president wherever the president goes where there s a large majority of his base in terms of political rallies they re probably going to be predominantly white audiences because only 8% that s probably going to be the norm. let s take that off the table. i think what you saw in alabama and you know very well they take their football very seriously was a president that was talking to the base and got them riled up about an issue that he knew they were going to care about which is the american flag, which is the national anthem which is pride and country. that is what that was about. and he knew that they cared about football so it s about riling up the base, you re saying. i think it was a
it was about what the presidency and the white house represents. and that is not what but they despised him decades before that. and to ba carry s point he had to earn that back. i just wanted to ask you, you spoke eloquently before about the need for a conversation. and obviously we always talk about the need for a conversation and unfortunately we only talk about it only when there has been some sort of racial conflict that brings it into the forefront. it is a conversation that should take place not just when there s a headline about it but in ways large and small all the time. do you really think, though, that president trump is adding to that conversation in a positive way by calling people, you know, referring to them as those people, you know, who are refusing to stand during our national anthem and calling them sons of bitches? again, for the third time, anderson, i will tell you that i do not think that the president used the right term to describe the people who decided
become a top seller just in the last 24 hours. i wonder what you make of that? i mean, kaepernick jersey, it s still the number one jersey and he hasn t played for the team all year. it s just to show you what people person you were detained, you were handcuffed after the mayweather mcgregor fight in las vegas. i wonder what about that incident has impacted your views on speaking out or demonstrating dur the national anthem. it just makes me know that everything we re talking about, every issue that we bring up is a reality for any one of us at any time. it can happen to me and it can happen to anybody. at the end of the day, i don t hate law enforcement. i don t hate any ploofrsz, but i think there s some people out there that could, will judge you on the color of your skin. i don t believe that every single officer is a bad person, you know what i m saying. i m not going that way, but at the same time i know the issues that happened to me there just made me want to keep pushi
make sure that we understand i don t want anything from anderson cooper. i don t want anything from any white person in country to be plainly, plainly blunt, but what i do want is just an opportunity. i want an opportunity for equality. i don t want to bring anderson down. i just want to have the same playing field. that s all we re asking for. that s why people take a knee. and you will at president is saying when you re on the playing field don t diswant the plague or the national anthem. it s very simple. and you know what? if you re a white person if that had been a white person that kneeled i mean, you would have been making that argument against mu happened allee back then and yet you re praising george w. push for giving him the highest civilian award there is. very. no, no, no. no. anderson what i was actually saying was mu happened allee actually came to the white house because he understood that the honor was not about president george w. bush doing it. it was about
what he did, in all likelihood. he s not employed as a football plair, so the idea that the president would reach back and to bring this up in front of this particular audience to rile them up, as you say, doesn t that seem inappropriate? i mean, isn t that using the flag? well, in september 9 owed an nfl player who happens to be caucasian tweeted about him wanting to actually stand for the national anthem and said he was going to write pat till man s name on his shoe. so this is not an issue that is just somehow just coming bang to the mind-set of american people. that tweet had thousands of retweets back in september the, well before the president made this comment. and i think it s an important moment for the president to make and he should be able to opine about cultural issues. i mean, to use this about riling up the base? i mean, it was about riling up the base. it was about the number one currency we have in this country right now. i mean, it s not gold. it s not silver.