Trump tells Pence to leave NFL game as players kneel during anthem

WASHINGTON — United States President Donald Trump reignited his feud with the National Football League (NFL) on Sunday (Oct 8) by telling Vice President Mike Pence to walk out of a game in his home state of Indiana after nearly two dozen players from the visiting San Francisco 49ers knelt during the playing of the national anthem.

Mr Pence lavishly documented his early departure in a series of tweets and an official statement issued by his office. On Twitter, he declared: "I left today's Colts game because @POTUS (the president of the United States) and I will not dignify any event that disrespects our soldiers, our Flag, or our National Anthem."

While the vice president portrayed his decision as a gesture of patriotic principle, it had the distinct appearance of a well-planned, if costly, political stunt. He doubled back from a trip to the West Coast to take a seat in the stands in Indianapolis, where the 49ers – the team most associated with the NFL protest movement against racial injustice – were suiting up to play the Colts.

Shortly after Mr Pence issued his statement, Mr Trump said on Twitter, “I asked @VP Pence to leave stadium if any players kneeled, disrespecting our country. I am proud of him and @SecondLady Karen.”

For Mr Trump, the vice president’s walkout keeps alive a dispute that has proved popular with his political base, even if he has drawn criticism from the NFL and some of its owners for being divisive and politicising professional sports. On Sunday, NFL spokesman Joe Lockhart declined to comment on Mr Pence's statement.

While politicians from both parties concoct situations for political gain, some criticised the vice-president's walkout as transparently premeditated. Mr Pence did not take a pool reporter traveling with him into the stadium; a member of Mr Pence's staff told the reporter that the vice president might be leaving the game early.

“Manipulation of faux patriotism took new turn today with VP Pence. Preplanned early exit from Colts game after 49ers kneeled, then tweets,” Mr Norman Ornstein, a resident scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, wrote on Twitter.

Others pointed out the expense involved: Mr Pence flew to Indianapolis from Las Vegas, where he had attended a memorial service for victims of last Sunday's mass shooting, and was immediately flying back to Los Angeles.

“After all the scandals involving unnecessarily expensive travel by Cabinet secretaries, how much taxpayer money was wasted on this stunt?” Democrat Senator Adam B. Schiff of California said in a tweet.

There was little doubt, given the presence of the 49ers, that Mr Pence would be given an opportunity to make his political statement. The former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began the dispute over the national anthem last year by taking a knee to highlight the plight of black Americans, particularly the killing of black men by police officers.

Kaepernick left the 49ers in March and has not been signed by any other team – a situation seen by many as a blacklisting by other team owners. But other 49ers have continued the protest in a show of solidarity with their former teammate.

Last month, Mr Trump seized on the dispute over Kaepernick, declaring at a rally in Alabama that any “son of a bitch” who refused to stand for the anthem should be “fired”. His comments led hundreds of players to protest during the anthem, though last weekend the furor appeared to be subsiding a bit.

The White House seemed determined to whip it up again. In addition to Mr Pence’s statement and tweets, the press office released a photo of him in a suit, standing with his hand over his heart for the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. He was standing next to Major General Courtney P. Carr, a veteran of the Iraq War who now serves as adjutant general of the Indiana National Guard.

An earlier tweet by the vice president, in which he said that he and his wife Karen were looking forward to the game, showed him wearing a Colts cap and casual clothing. He said he was there to honor Peyton Manning, the longtime Colts quarterback whose statue was unveiled in Indianapolis this weekend, and who was set to have his number retired into the team's ring of honor at halftime.

The vice president's office later said that the photo had actually been taken in 2014, when Mr Pence was governor of Indiana.

In the West Wing, officials privately said they believed that Mr Pence had sought the controversy, which is a favorite of the president’s and which he had voiced his approval of. It came less than two weeks after Mr Pence's chief of staff, Mr Nick Ayers, told a group of Republican donors that there might need to be a “purge” of the party if people did not get behind the president.

Two weeks ago, Mr Trump had called for fans to walk out of stadiums if players knelt. So Mr Pence was doing what Mr Trump had called for, though few fans seem to have followed his call.

In the weeks since Mr Trump complained about players kneeling during the anthem, most have returned to standing, though some continue to kneel, particularly on the 49ers. While the 49ers knelt, the Colts locked arms as a team on Sunday.

In Detroit, the Lions stood arm in arm, including two players who had knelt the past two weeks. In New Jersey, the New York Giants defensive end Olivier Vernon, who was in street clothes, knelt while the rest of his team linked arms.

In Miami, three members of the Dolphins – Kenny Stills, Julius Thomas and Mike Thomas – stayed in the locker room while the rest of their team stood on the sideline during the anthem. THE NEW YORK TIMES