ESPN’s Molly Qerim is worried that Clemson’s national championship football team did not realize the racism on display during their White House visit this week.
Stephen A. Smith, Max Kellerman and their “First Take” co-host ripped President Trump on Wednesday for serving an assortment of burgers and pizza to players of multiple races and ethnic backgrounds.
The male hosts panned the “classless” meal while Ms. Qerim voiced concern over serving McDonald’s Big Macs to black athletes.
“When I saw him giving the football players — it’s a predominantly black sport — and fast food my thought went a very different place,” Ms. Qerim said. “I mean, come on.”
“One could also make the argument that it falls in line with an abundance of other things that have transpired with this particular individual” added Mr. Smith.
The commentary comes roughly four months after Disney CEO Bob Iger touted the network’s move away from partisan politics.
“I have nothing but praise for the job Jimmy Pitaro has done at ESPN,” Mr. Iger said in late September. “There’s been a big debate about whether ESPN should be focused more on what happens on the field of sport than what happens in terms of where sports is societally or politically. And Jimmy felt that the pendulum may have swung a little bit too far away from the field. And I happen to believe he was right. … He has brought back some balance.”
The “First Take” crew’s commentary was soon reported by Clay Travis of OutKick.com.
“ESPN host says @realDonaldTrump was racist to give Clemson football players fast food,” he told over 600,000 Twitter followers. “This really just happened on @espn air. We’ve got an early lead for wokest take of the year!”
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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