Thursday morning’s programming on MSNBC devoted quite a bit of time to trashing President Trump’s reaction to the new NFL policy requiring football players to either stand for the National Anthem on the field or stay in the locker room. The media particularly found themselves hysterical over President Trump’s suggestion that if players don’t want to stand for the National Anthem, they “shouldn’t be in the country.” Morning Joe panelist Eddie Glaude Jr. compared President Trump to dictatorial Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan while panelists on MSNBC Live With Stephanie Ruhle decried President Trump as a “bully” and tried to make him look like a racist.

Fox News Host Brian Kilmeade asked President Trump to weigh in on the new NFL policy during an exclusive interview on Fox & Friends, which aired Thursday morning. “You have to stand proudly for the National Anthem or you shouldn’t be playing. You shouldn’t be there. Maybe you shouldn’t be in the country. You have to stand proudly for the National Anthem.”

On Morning Joe, Willie Geist asked Princeton Professor Eddie Glaude Jr. to weigh in on the President’s “staggering” comments. Glaude responded: “It’s ridiculous. It’s absurd. He sounds a lot like Erdogan right there, doesn’t he? He doesn’t sound like the leader of the free world.” For the record, President Trump did not use the power of the government to force the NFL to make its players stand for the National Anthem. Public opinion probably did more than anything else to influence the NFL’s decision.

The President’s comments on Fox & Friends came up again during MSNBC Live With Stephanie Ruhle. Attorney Midwin Charles informed host Stephanie Ruhle that the new NFL policy does not violate the First Amendment. Politico’s Ben White argued that the NFL made a mistake with its new policy because “there’s no satisfying him on this,” specifically referring to President Trump’s disappointment with the fact that the new policy still allows players to remain in the locker room during the National Anthem. Charles did not act surprised that the President wants the NFL to go further with their new policy: “when you give an inch to a bully, he’ll take a mile. I mean, that’s just exactly what happens here with this President.”

The panel also did their best to make the President look like a racist, with The New York Daily News’s Mike Lupica pointing out that the whole debate about kneeling began “on a Friday night at a rally in Alabama with the President of the United States speaking to a crowd that looked like an SEC white football crowd in 1955 calling them SOBS and saying they should be fired. In what world other than his is that okay?”

Hysteria over President Trump’s comments continued well into primetime on MSNBC, with former NFL star and 9/11 truther Dante Stallworth appearing on Hardball to weigh in on the matter. Stallworth accused the President of “flirting with authoritarianism,” once again bringing up Erdogan, whom Stallworth described as someone “he’s obviously good friends with.”

The media hysteria fails to keep in mind that players can still take a knee during the National Anthem; although their team owners will have to pay a fine if any of their players decide to kneel during the Anthem. New York Jets co-owner Christopher Johnson has already said that he would pay a fine for any players who elect to defy the NFL’s new policy. Maybe the Jets would like to sign Colin Kaepernick, who has spent the past year complaining about how no team wants to sign him because of the controversy he has created by spearheading the “kneel during the anthem” movement.

As football season approaches, the media will continue to demonize anyone who wants all football players to stand during the National Anthem and protest on their own time as racist. Hopefully, the NFL's new policy will enable Americans to once again see football as a place to unite Americans and escape today's polarizing political climate.

Morning Joe 05/24/18 08:52 AM WILLIE GEIST: President Trump spoke yesterday on Long Island at an event focused on immigration and violence tied to the MS-13 gang. And in a taped interview with Fox News, the President had this to say.



PRESIDENT TRUMP: Everybody knows what’s going on. These are vicious killers and they shouldn’t be allowed into the country. The laws are horrible. We’re bringing them out by the thousands. As you know, we’re setting records. This is a record that I’m not even, I don’t even like talking about it because it’s so ridiculous. They shouldn’t be in the country. But we are doing from the standpoint of law enforcement, a great job. The Democrats are sticking up for MS-13. You heard Nancy Pelosi the other day like trying to find all sorts of reasons why they should be able to stay. These are stone-cold killers, vicious killers. And when you hear families like that and see families, these are incredible families, where they lost their daughters in this case, you had some other people in the room, they lost sons. This should never happen.



GEIST: That’s the President talking there talking about MS-13 gang members that they’re vicious killers. They shouldn’t be allowed into the country. President Trump also offered his thoughts on the NFL’s new policy regarding the National Anthem.



PRESIDENT TRUMP: I don’t think people should be staying in locker rooms but still I think it’s good. You have to stand proudly for the National Anthem or you shouldn’t be playing. You shouldn’t be there. Maybe you shouldn’t be in the country. You have to stand proudly for the National Anthem. And the NFL owners did the right thing if that’s what they’ve done. I think the people pushed it forward. This was not me. I brought it out. I think the people pushed it forward. This country’s very smart. We have very smart people. And, you know, that’s something ideally could have been taken care of when it first started. It would have been a lot easier. But if they did that, they’re doing the right thing.



GEIST: So Eddie, let’s just repeat what the President said about the NFL players who have chosen to kneel for the Anthem, “maybe you shouldn’t be in the country.” You don’t have to agree with what the players are doing. You can disagree with their decision to kneel during the Anthem, to recognize how staggering that statement is from the President of the United States.



EDDIE GLAUDE: It’s ridiculous. It’s absurd. He sounds a lot like Erdogan right there, doesn’t he? He doesn’t sound like the leader of the free world. I think at the heart of the issue with the Anthem and black athletes, and it’s particularly black athletes, is this racial issue tied to two things. There’s a sense in which these multimillionaire athletes are ungrateful and that they should just go out and play like Laura Ingraham told Lebron, just go out and play. GEIST: Shut up and dribble. GLAUDE: Shut up and dribble, or shut up and pass the ball or run the ball or catch the ball or block or whatever. So you’re ungrateful, as if someone gave you what you are doing. And then the other thing is this, there’s a sense, and I’ve said this before, there’s a sense in which whenever African-Americans protest, there’s a presumption that their protest reveals that they’re disloyal, that they don’t love the country. And so you get these selective patriots, right? There are some people that can protest according to this group, Cliven Bundy, and they’re considered patriots. But you can have someone take a knee in the name of the country’s principles to bring attention to the brutality of the unequal application of the law and they’re certainly viewed as someone, as traitors because you want to kick them out of the country. It’s so profoundly hypocritical, so profoundly undemocratic and indicative of a, of a long history of racial problems in this country.



JONATHAN LEMIRE: One thing I can say for sure, we know that no matter what happens in September, when these preseason games start, when the regular season games start. No matter what the percentage of players it is who actually stay in the locker room or come out on the field or some who still do kneel, the President will bring this up again. He feels this is a winner for him. Last fall, let’s remembers he spent far more far more time talking about these Anthem protests then the devastating hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico and the south. But this is something he feels like inflames his base. He thinks it’s a political winner; this will be something you will hear him use ahead of the midterms.



GLAUDE: Exactly.



LEMIRE: This is something that he will go to time and time again. It is a culture war that he wants to fight.



GEIST: And the protests will continue in one form or another. You already had one owner say I will pay your fine if you want to continue to kneel. So the President will have this as an issue going into the fall.