The controversy over the NFL’s anti-American anthem protests continues to rage on.
CNN hosted a town hall event to debate NFL players disrespecting the flag and the veterans who fought and died under it.
At the event, the parents of a veteran asked one question that left the protesters and their defenders in ruins.
Race-baiting film director Spike Lee – who accused Donald Trump of speaking like a plantation owner for saying team owners should fire anti-American players – represented the protesters point of view.
But he was completely unprepared when Vincent and Diana Bonacasa – Gold Star parents who lost their son Lewis Michael Bonacasa in Afghanistan – questioned him about the patriotism of the protesters.
They grilled him about the disrespect they felt and after stammering through an answer all Lee could conclude with was that he was just as worried about Donald Trump as he was Kim Jong Un.
Real Clear Politics provides a transcript of the exchange:
“BONACASA: Last Sunday our community had celebration for Gold Star parents. It was a very humbling ceremony but it brought us back to the day we lost our son. It was a very empty feeling. We came home, turned on the TV and there was the NFL players on their knees. That was a slap in the face to us. So, my question is how do you support these multimillionaires on their knees and don’t support what the fallen heroes died for?
LEE: Sir, I’m very sorry for your loss but the narrative that you spoke about is not true. All these players have said many, many, times that they’ve respect the armed forces. They respect the flag and they respect America and this narrative that when they take a knee it’s insulting your son who is no longer here is not true — they’ve said that again and again and again.
COOPER: But there’s a lot of people who look at this as disrespectful.
LEE: But a lot of people thought in the 1968 Olympics — this is why I’m wearing this shirt — John Carls and Tommy Smith when they won the Olympics they put the black fist up. A lot of you felt that was …
BONACASA: Excuse me, I have one other question. When North Korea aims a missile at us are these football players going to be on their knees or are they going to support our veterans?
LEE: Say that again?
BONACASA: When North Korea aims a nuclear missile at us are these heroes that you say — NFL — that can’t support our flag are they going to be on their knees when this happens or are they going to support our veterans?
LEE: Sir, I’m worried just as much about Donald Trump as that crazy guy in North Korea — and he has a nuclear code. I’m worrying about that.”
Lee and other anthem protest apologists are trying to rewrite history.
They claim the protests have nothing to do with the flag or the military.
But Colin Kaepernick – the man who started this entire anti-American movement – said he began kneeling for the anthem because he could not honor the flag of a country that oppressed black people.
If the flag represents racism, then the disgusting idea behind these protests is that veterans fought and died to maintain a racist country that oppresses black people.
That’s why Lee couldn’t deliver a coherent answer on why the parents of dead veterans should not be offended by the protests.
