Sunday, October 8, 2017
Trump says he directed Pence to walk out of game if 49ers protested during national anthem
This Sunday, October 8th, Vice-President Mike Pence attended the 49ers Colts game and promptly left after various players refused to stand and instead knelt for the national anthem, protesting America's wrongs such as police brutality. Antagonism between this protest and the Trump administration is nothing new, and even though he lacked the vehemence of Trump in the denouncing of this protest, he denounced it nonetheless, asserting kneeling during the national anthem disrespects the United States and the military that defends it, despite the fact these players have specific, cited reasons for kneeling.
Again, this topic was already re-brought to light by Trump's Alabama rally a few weeks ago, and has been discussed ad nauseam since then. On whether the players are heroes, traitors, or neither, everyone has already made up their mind. To me, Pence leaving in disgust as a result of players kneeling during the national anthem seems hyperbolic, like a pr stunt. Did Pence really expect that no players would kneel? In this pr stunt, it seems like the Trump administration is trying to make the NFL protests and the president's disapproval of them a relevant story again, possibly because of the fleeting marginal bump in the polls Trump received after his Alabama Rally. Maybe he's trying to distract from other issues maligning the administration, such as news involving his cabinet.
What do you think? Was this a pr stunt? Why or why not? What was its purpose?
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7 comments:
I firmly believe this was a PR stunt. Prior to the start of the game, Pence posted a photo on Twitter of him and his wife "at the game," but it turned out that photo was from three years ago. In my opinion, this shows that he was attempting to generate publicity that he was in fact at the game so that his exit would be more "dramatic." He had to have known that the 49ers were going to conduct some sort of protest given that 30 players kneeled last week (USA Today), while most other teams scaled back their protests. I find it despicable that Pence would go through all this effort just to prove a point. He left Las Vegas — a city still recovering from the largest mass shooting in American history — before the game to attend the game, and even if, say, his early exit wasn't a stunt, it still would not be appropriate for him to ditch Vegas to attend a football game. Additionally, MarketWatch reported that his stunt will likely cost taxpayers "hundreds of thousands of dollars, at least." Especially in wake of the Las Vegas shooting, we don't need to divide our country more, but unfortunately, I believe Pence did just that today.
It seems like Trump's white house is doing a little counter protesting of their own.
I don't see an issue with the action itself of pence walking out of the stadium when athletes leave because he is using actions to convey his ideology, exactly what the athletes themselves are doing. He wants to convey his disapproval of kneeling. But the issue I have with this poll is that he is clearly acting in a hypocritical way: he is utilizing symbolic speech to denounce symbolic speech. Obviously, he should not have the grounds to protest this topic, not because this is considered a PR stunt or because of his background, but he is literally using a form of protest that he disapproves of. Furthermore, by doing this, a parallel argument to the "kneeling is offensive to the entire country" can be used against him, as him walking out is symbolic of his opposition to racial equality, which is what the kneeling represents.
I also believe that this was a PR stunt. I also read what Zack said about how Pence posted a photo of him and his wife on Twitter at the game but the photo was actually from years back. Because of that, I don't see any reason Pence would do this besides a PR stunt. Despite this though, he has every right to protest players from kneeling, although I feel as if he really should not be mad about this protest as it is for the good cause of racial equality. I also agree with Jason in how what Pence is doing is extremely hypocritical. Instead of focusing on this, I feel as if Pence, along with Trump, should turn their attention towards other issues such as assisting Puerto Rico.
Obviously the Trump administration doesn't support NFL players kneeling during the national anthem as they see it as disrespectful to the troops and the nation as a whole. In my opinion, I feel that Pence already knew that the players were going to kneel, so his response to it, which was to leave, was pre-planned. He has every right to express how he feels toward this issue, and I feel like his decision to leave was to send a message out to the public, and especially the NFL, that he doesn't support kneeling during the national anthem. Also, I think people get caught up in the action of kneeling; in my opinion, I think people should focus on the message that the kneeling is trying to convey, and not see it as intentionally being disrespectful toward the national anthem, the singer, and the nation.
This definitely feels like a stunt -- one that somewhat backfired. Aside from the jokes about Pence being a paid protester, it also brings more attention to the nationwide player protests and the message behind them. Of course, Pence has his freedom of speech just as the players do. However, the entire conflict seems extremely petty. Why doesn't Trump get angry over the US Flag being used for clothing or advertisement? After all, it's in the flag code. Presidents are elected in order to oversee nationwide and even international issues, not football protests.
I agree that this was some sort of stunt. Like Cameron mentioned in the original post, the discussion about standing vs. kneeling has generated a lot of attention in the news and online, and it seems like this was meant to perpetuate that argument. We know that Trump is a expert at using social media and his rallies to generate a lot of controversy, which initially seemed like it would hurt him during the campaign, but now it is evident that he is doing something right.
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