Off the field right now, out, hes fired . Hes fired president friday night in alabama. Over the weekend protest spread across the nfl, suddenly sobs as he calls them were elsewhere. Yesterday he was tweetding, quote, sports fan should never condone players that do not stand proud for their country. Change the rules, fire the sobs. What Colin Kaepernick was doing last year, which is what the president said he had a right to do which he disagrees, now its something to speak out against. Someone must have forgotten to tell his press secretary however because she said thats not what hes doing at all. This isnt about the president being against anyone, this is about the president and millions of americans being for something, being for honoring or flag, our National Anthem and honoring the men and women who fought to defend it. This isnt about the president being against anyone she says. Listen again to the president s words and decide for yourself. Wouldnt you love to see one of these nfl owners when somebody disrespects our flag to say get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out, hes fired . Hes fired again, you can decide for yourself what the president meant by his remarks which he made about predominantly africanamerican players to a audience of white people in alabama. Decide for yourself what to make of what the parking light said yesterday about the racial dimension. And you see those people taking the knee when theyre playing out great National Anthem. Those people, the president said. He followed that up with a tweet raising nascar which in its entire history only had four africanamerican drivers in its premiere series. The president also tweeted with the nba, since speaking in alabama hes speeded 14 times either directly or indirectly about the players. Jim acosta joins us from the white house. Whats the latest. Reporter i understand the white house is clinging to the fantasy that everybody is out of bounds except the president. We saw that in the White House Briefing room, i tried to when he spent the better part of the weekend going after predominantly africanamerican athletes while early this morning raising nascar in the way of their fans honor and salute the flag. Hes a bit of that exchange. Is he trying to wage something of a cultural war . Not at all. Hes not talking about race, hes talking about pride in our country. What you saw yesterday were players and fans of all races joining together as americans to horn or service members. Thats what the president talks about and focuses on. The president scouted an event here in a few minutes so were going to close there. Thank so much. Couldnt get a followup question there anderson. We should point out i talked to a republican adviser who talks to this white house all the time and advises this white house. He said yes, the president is in fact waging a cultural war and winning by turning what he described as millionaire professional athletes as hillary clinton. The chef of staff as i understand weighed in on this. Reporter thats right. He made a brief comment saying he believes everybody should stand up in honor of a flag as what he described as a lousy three minutes. Earlier today we were hearing sources saying that john kelly, the chief of staff was not pleased with what happened over the weekend with what the president has done in igniting this controversy. The president registered his displeasure and put up a couple of tweets, we can show you the tweets anderson. Heres one says general john kelly agrees with my stance on nfl players on the fact they should not be disrespecting our flag or our country. Theres another one that says theres a tremendous backlash against the nfl and its players for disrespect for our country. With the hash tag stand for our anthem. Anderson, i was talking with an associate today who was saying listen, these are something that the cultural comments the president makes at rallies from time to time, he thinks about these in advance and hell talk about these comments with his aids before he goes out and makes these kind of comments publicly. And sometime his aids and his advisers and friends will say, no no, mr. President dont do that. But the president often goes with his gut and will make these kinds of inflammatory comments and i think thats what you saw over the weekend here. Keep in mind anderson we spent the better part of the day talking about the nfl and not the items you mentioned at the beginning of this newscast which is all the people suffering in puerto rico and healthcare and so on. So, he plans these things out, a lot of people raise the question is he just intentionally trying to do this to a, distract from failures on healthcare or is it to stroke racial divide . Is it about appealing to the base . He reference thothose people that what its about . I cant tell you the president s heart covering this more a year and a half. The president questioned whether barack obama was born in this country, the first africanamerican president. He described people in the White Supremacist Movement as having very fine people. Again, when i talk to advisers, aids of the president they claim and swear up and down hes not racist but they do say, they do admit privately that he does like to stoke these kinds of controversies because they do at time serve as a distraction and that bright shiny object from time to time and pulls our attention away from some of the more pressing issues out there. This is a president who is losing on healthcare tonight. He is not going to repeal and replace obamacare, something he said hes do at the beginning of his administration. All right thank you very much. Michael bennet, the political and personal side of this story overlapped for him. He say police in las vegas stopped him after he and others were fleeing, sounded like gun shots. He said the officer singled him out quote, for nothing else other than being a black man. The president says he saw no evidence that racism played in the decision. Michael, when you first heard what the president said friday night, calling players who yield son of a bitches and they should be fired, im wondering what went through your mind. A lot of things went through my mind. The first thing i did was start thinking about my mom and what she sacrificed for me as a child, what she did for me in a community and dedicated our life for attaching what she did in houston. I couldnt understand why thad come from a president. It will only shape us in the nfl we all came through together collectively and stood together and i thought that was a powerful message. Two teams, the steelers, your team, the seahawkss decided not to take the field during the National Anthem. Can you talk about what was behind your teams decision to do that . We talked for maybe two or three hours. I think it was less about donald trump and more about equality in america, things that people saw what was going on with all types of minorities and just people in general, the hate and discrimination going on right now. We felt to show your unity, on top of what happened with donald trump and more about the e qualities more of bringing our team together. We wanted to be able not to put anybody in the limelight. We made a decision as a team for what we believe in. I wonder if you think the president s comments were motivated by race or Racial Attitudes that he may have . I think it have lot to do with race, for us we want to find a way to change our community. I know a lot of people dont like it because were empowering people of color, empowering people who chose what to believe in. And just to someone who doesnt understand the idea of taking a knee during National Anthem or linking arms. To you whats the message of it, what is the purpose of it . Its about us taking a stand for equality in america all the people thats being discriminated against right now. We want to break up the issues and have a conversation. People think were attacking military, thats not true, we believe in the military and we do so many thing with the military from working with families, kids and camps, our families have been in the military. So, we love the military. All were trying to do is bring the issues up in equality, Police Brutality, all the things against minority people in america and we want to bring up those issues every single weekend. People get mad about it, what are we supposed to do, these are challenges times and we cant let our jobs define who we are. Outside of football were human beings and we want to be able to express the love for other humans. So, to people say whose disrespecting the flag and patriotic, what do you say . No i think its the opposite, we honor the thing people fight for. Honor, liberty, equality and justice for all. I wonder whether you saw Andrew Villanueva who was a former served in the military, he came out and stood during the anthem, everybody else in his team did not, im wondering what you thought of that decision. I thought, that shows of america, thats freedom to express what he believed in, thats what it really about. Whats a difference between a guy kneeling for what he believes in and the difference between him standing what he believes in. I dont think we should be judged because we believe in equality. Just like he believes in what he believe in im proud that he stood up for what he believed in and thats what its about. I saw that his jersey has become a top seller just in the last 24 hours, im wondering what you make of that. Kaepernick its still the number one selling jersey as the team of San Francisco and he hasnt played all year. Theres certain people that believe in what certain people do and other people believe in what other people do. That doesnt make it right or wrong. What about the incident of the Floyd Mayweather fight the issue it happened to me and it can happen to anybody. At the end of the day i dont hate law enforcement, i dont hate any Police Officers but i think theres people out there that will judge you on the color of your skin. I dont want people to say youre bashing every single officer, i dont believe every single officer is a bad person, but at the same time i know the issues happened to me there made me want to keep mushing toward and keep pushing forward no matter what happened and keep Going Forward. You can be scared or stand up. I understand youve been having ongoing conversations with Colin Kaepernick whose been in silence since the president s comments. Im wondering have you spoken to him since then . Yeah ive spoken to him. I wish that unity that we showed for this weekend i wish we could have shown that unity for him when he was off the team. I wish we could have become a collective group and stood up for him in moments like this. Were talking about the moment where people come together i think thats want what he wanted to help. If the president was watching tonight what would your message be . I would love to sit down with the president and talk about these issues and be able to find a way to fix them or be able to find a way to have the voice of the people, the people that dont have the voice that theyre not listening to. I cant sit here and say hes in the my president because at the end of the day he is a president of the United States. For him to say theres a privilege we shouldnt speak on what we believe in because were making munch he was a rich man too and all of a sudden hes speaking on what he believes in and so what makes him difference from us. Michael, its a pleasure talking to you. Thank you very much. Its a pleasure talking to you. Tha thank you man. Lebron james in a tweet call the president in his own words, a bomb. And he said this. The thing that kind of frus sfrated me and pissed me off a bit is the fact that hes now he used the sports platform to try to divide us. And sports in sports its so its so amazing, what sports can do for everyone no matter the shape or size or race or ethnicity or religion or whatever, im not going to let why have this platform to let one individual, no matter the power, no matter the impact that he should have or she should have ever use sport as a platform to divide us, because the people run this country not one individual. Damn sure not him. Two views from two cnn commentators, mccart sellers, and parish denard. Mccorey so the white house says the president isnt against anyone its pro flag, do you believe that . This isnt about the flag, the National Anthem, the military, in fact all of us, i know paris included but everybody whose taking the knee has the utmost respect for people who died for our freedoms. One of the freedoms that they shed blood for and fight for overseas daily is the freedom to protest and express yourself. This has fundamentally about Police Brutality and ine qualities for africanamerican people fa people face in this country every day. This knee we take is paris how do you see . I disagree with may corey on the sense the players are kneeling or refusing to acknowledge the National Anthem or the pledge of agleejs. The past 48 hours its been in protest to the President Donald Trump. We recall when Colin Kaepernick did this he didnt have the support and people and the owners running to his defense because he was standing up and in this case kneeling down or in solidarity with White Supremacy and thing of that nature. What we have seen over the past 48 hours is gross mischaracterization in my opinion. Because instead of doing what mccorey is talking about, were focusing on whether or not President Donald Trump is a racist. If we want to have a real teachable moment, if we want to have a conversation about culture, about american history, american pride, nationalism, pride in our country and president in our flag the president could be opening the door for that. Instead what we focus on is whether or not hes a racist. But paris, opening that door and having a conversations a great thing, the president is the one who called these people sons of bitches, to use the president s word, and said they should be fired, do you believe those sons of bitches, using the president s word can be fired. Is it right for the president to say . He can say what he wants, if i were president i wouldnt use the term to describe someone in that setting. But you would say when you look at cooperate businesses you have standards. The nfl wont let players wear pink in the Breast Cancer month outside of october. So they have certain standards. When you are in the private sector the ceo or the owner can make decisions about what you can and cannot do. I think if donald trump or i were the head of an organization and part of what my team or my staff needed to do or required to do was wed play the National Anthem or say the pledge of allegiance, if thats what i wanted them to do i have the right or progress tiff to do that in a private sector. The president cannot vidictate have anyone do. I think the nfl should come out and make a statement and say, if were going to play the National Anthem, which is knew, because it started in 2009, then players have to do x or y, if not theyre going to have the slippery slope argument on whether or not they can do certain things or other things. Which, in this case i believe is just offensive. Thats the issue. Let me just real quick, you can protest, you can be so upset at which i agree, with some of things that are going on especially to our community, but when you do Something Like protest in a way that is so offensive to the flag or to the soldiers veterans or to soldiers or to National Anthem you detract from the message. I hope they can find a different message to keep on us message. First of all, pariss view is not one thats new for some africanamericans. 61 of individuals during the 1960s felt like the montgomery bus and freedom writers were unpopular. Were doing the wrong thing. When Martin Luther king jr. , and others started a sitins, you think that was comfortable people were cheering them on, they were not. Protest is messy, uncomfortable. Its suppose to shock the conscious and thats what were doing. Military people, they will tell you today, they go overseas to fight so we have the freedom to protest in this country. Im glad that its making you uncomfortable paris, because now were dealing with the original descent of this country, were dealing with race. If anybody thinks that donald j. Trump went to alabama, he was in alabama talking about black athletes and calls them sons of bitches, weve heard this before, its the same tenor and tone. Weve heard this language before from white people in the deep south preferring to aerchs and especially black athletes who they feel are taking their place. This wouldnt a dog whistle its a bull horn. Were going to keep protesting. Were going to make sure that they understand there are fundamentally ine qualities in this country. Oh presentation and white supremacist run a muck and were going to shatter those systems. Paris, when you see donald trump to mccoreys point in alabama to the history of what happened there not too long ago, calling, you know referring to those people, kneeling to our anthem do you see a racial element in that . You can see a racial element in anything. Do you see it . No i dont. Only 8 of the Africanamerican Community gave him his vote, thats probably going to be the norm. I think what you saw in alabama, and you know very well that they take their football very seriously, was a president talking to the base and got them raled up about an issue that they knew they were going to care about, which is the american flag, which is the National Anthem, which is pride in country, thats what that was about and they knew so about raling up debates . About an issue that is a very very important issue. And again, mccorey i agree with you. I wish the president would not have use that had phrase, son of a bitch, but i say this we should be just as upset when we hear rappers and other individuals refer to women in that regard. If youre going to criticize one lets be consis