a knee over a flag that many of our generation preceding us have died to protect the freedoms there, they somehow get honored as martyrs by the media. the president is pointing out that shouldn t be accepted. they have a first amendment right to do that, but nfl owners also have a right to fire the players. the president is not looking at through through a racial lens. there s plenty of african-american athletes on all of the championships that the president welcomed to the white house. they re the ones who chose to make a political issue out of this. joining me now is joe watkins, a republican strategist. erin dell more, whom i m going to call erin d., because we also welcome in erin mcpike, for independent general review. i m going to begin with joe to keep it simple. so talk to me about the significance of what we re watching unfold here, and your reaction to the white house, joe, blaming the players for making this political. well, i think the players
saying that? is that a question for me, alex? i believe so. that is a question for you. i think so. i m sorry. i can t see you. there s no monitor here. but can i ask you a question, sir, since we re having it real on tv? where do you work at? i used to work in the nfl. then i protested for people s rights on my own dime, on my own time. and i was kicked out of the league. so your argument holds no merit, sir. where do you work now, sir? i am a stay-at-home dad because i can no longer play in the nfl because i protested on my own time and i was kicked out of the league. okay, so my whole deal here, what i have been saying all along. uh-huh. it s totally unfair to anyone when you go into any agreement. i ll say it again and again. to take your platform and push it on someone when you know that s what you agreed going into it, sir. that s all my argument. i m totally for it. i m not trying to push back on the first amendment. what i m trying to say is that you r
sweet! back to the nfl controversy, the president again pushing for nfl players who kneel during the anthem to be fired. these are players at games that began at the top of the hour, kneeling in direct response to the president. the white house insists the president s position was not racially motivated. the white house legislative affairs director making this defense earlier today. in the nfl, players who take
solidarity with his players there. let s go to met life stadium in east rutherford, new jersey. any minute now, the dolphins/jets game is set to begin. what you re seeing there is the steelers/bears game in chicago. those steelers, all of them, stayed inside the locker room, and they protested by not participating in the national anthem publicly there. back to rutherford. let s go to morgan radford there for us. morgan, are we expecting any kind of reaction or statement from either team there? reporter: well, you can hear the crowd actually cheering behind me in the stadium just as this game begins. the question is going to be how the fans react based on what they see today. alex, so far, we have talked to them. some said they re conflicted. some say we support the nfl players who are deciding to protest. and other people i spoke to said, no, we side with president trump. we don t think this is the time or the place. they said this isn t so much about freedom of speech, but they felt
player, you re listening to my conversation with bruce, and it s talking about the contract between employee and employer. what do you think about that? about trying to have a peaceful expression, peaceful demonstration that many of these nfl players are doing today, but doing it on their own time or their own dime? well, i think i just listened to the most disgusting piece of fascist propaganda i have heard since 1930s era germany. the idea that people can only be valued for the amount of money they can provide for a corporation is antithetical to the entirety of what america stands for. let s not forget that at one time slavery was legal. that was a contract you could follow. to say that because someone has a job that they must not protest against inequality within their society, frankly, that is unbelievable. i don t see how you can consider yourself an american and say that kind of stuff. like i just don t get it. how do you sleep at night by