UPDATE (6/5/20, 5:20 p.m. ET): Laura Ingraham refused to apologize after people pointed out the Fox News host’s hypocrisy for encouraging New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees to speak up on his anti-kneeling stance, yet telling NBA stars LeBron James and Kevin Durant to “shut up and dribble” for sharing their political views in 2018. “My defense of Brees’ led to an online chorus of people comparing those comments to previous comments I had made to Lebron James. At the time, James had said that Trump ‘really doesn’t give an ‘eff’ about the people.’ Well, without dwelling on the nuance between the two instances, let me be very clear about what I believe: We are all children of God, regardless of our racial or political differences and therefore must be treated equally,” Laura said on Fox News Channel’s The Ingraham Angle on June 4.
“Every American, every-American has the God-given right to speak his mind on any issue,” she said, despite criticizing LeBron and Kevin for trying to “speak” their minds on important issues two years ago. She continued, “I think in order to heal and shed light on gross injustices, our country needs more dialogue, not less. And we need more respect, less retribution.” You can watch the full video below.
ORIGINAL: LeBron James, 35, reminded Americans why people are protesting for Black Lives Matter while pointing out Laura Ingraham’s hypocrisy on June 4. After once telling LeBron and fellow NBA star Kevin Durant to “shut up and dribble” for criticizing Donald Trump, she had a much different tune after Drew Brees, a white quarterback for the New Orleans Saints, was asked for his thoughts on NFL players potentially kneeling during the National Anthem at games in the upcoming 2020 season.
If you still haven’t figured out why the protesting is going on. Why we’re acting as we are is because we are simply F-N tired of this treatment right here! Can we break it down for you any simpler than this right here???? 🤦🏾♂️. And to my people don’t worry I won’t stop until I see https://t.co/e4pJ0PvwJj
— LeBron James (@KingJames) June 4, 2020
“I will never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of America or our country,” Drew said during a video interview with Yahoo Finance on June 3 (see below), in response to the form of peaceful protest against racial injustice that Colin Kaepernick started in 2016. Instead of telling Drew to “shut up,” Laura instead encouraged the football player for speaking out on a non-sports related topic.
“Well he’s allowed to have his view about what kneeling and the flag means to him. I mean he’s a person, he has some worth, I would imagine. I mean, this is beyond football though,” she said during a segment that aired on Fox News on June 3.
Laura’s reaction to LeBron and Kevin’s political comments in 2018, and her defense of Drew on Wednesday, were conveniently spliced in a Twitter video from Complex Sports. LeBron was quick to comment and retweet. “If you still haven’t figured out why the protesting is going on. Why we’re acting as we are is because we are simply F-N tired of this treatment right here!,” LeBron wrote over the video. “Can we break it down for you any simpler than this right here????. And to my people don’t worry I won’t stop until I see.”
WOW MAN!! 🤦🏾♂️. Is it still surprising at this point. Sure isn’t! You literally still don’t understand why Kap was kneeling on one knee?? Has absolute nothing to do with the disrespect of 🇺🇸 and our soldiers(men and women) who keep our land free. My father-in-law was one of those https://t.co/pvUWPmh4s8
— LeBron James (@KingJames) June 3, 2020
LeBron also directly addressed Drew’s anti-kneeling stance on Twitter, writing, “WOW MAN!!. Is it still surprising at this point. Sure isn’t! You literally still don’t understand why Kap was kneeling on one knee?? Has absolute nothing to do with the disrespect of [American flag emoji] and our soldiers(men and women) who keep our land free. My father-in-law was one of those.” The very next day, Drew issued both written and video apologies after facing heavy backlash.
“I would like to apologize to my friends, teammates, the City of New Orleans, the black community, NFL community and anyone I hurt with my comments yesterday. In speaking with some of you, it breaks my heart to know the pain I have caused,” the Saints player wrote on Instagram. “In an attempt to talk about respect, unity, and solidarity centered around the American flag and the national anthem, I made comments that were insensitive and completely missed the mark on the issues we are facing right now as a country.” Drew added that he stands “with the black community in the fight against systemic racial injustice and police brutality.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBCIljGngKI/
Not only did Laura try to silence LeBron and Kevin’s opinions, she had also labeled the heavily-criticized 2018 news segment “Jocks On Politics.” As a refresher, she told viewers, “It’s always unwise to seek political advice from someone who gets paid $100 million a year to bounce a ball. Oh and Lebron and Kevin, you’re great players, but no one voted for you. Millions elected trump to be their coach. So Keep the political comments to yourselves, or as someone once said, ‘Shut up and dribble.’”