New York (CNN Business) ESPN radio and TV personality Dan Le Batard called his network's relatively new politics-free stance "cowardly" in the face of President Donald Trump and his supporters' racist remarks about four Democratic congresswomen of color.

Stop what you're doing and watch this.@LeBatardShow responds to the racist "Send her back" and "Go back to your country" attacks against Ilhan Omar and other congresswomen.



"If you're not calling it abhorrent, obviously racist, dangerous rhetoric, you're complicit." pic.twitter.com/ntOC2Seg3b — Erick Fernandez (@ErickFernandez) July 18, 2019

In an impassioned response, Le Batard said it was the duty of sports broadcasters to comment on race relations — and in particular what he called the "un-American" chants of "send her back" directed at Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a Somali refugee and American citizen, during a Trump rally this week.

Le Batard, the son of Cuban immigrants, noted that civil rights activists have long used sports to address race, gender and other social problems in the country, pointing to former athletes Jim Brown, Bill Russell and Colin Kaepernick . But Le Batard said that now, ESPN personalities don't talk about race in America "unless there is some sort of weak, cowardly sports angle that we can run it through," like a tweet from an athlete.

Under Pitaro's predecessor, John Skipper, ESPN had at times been more political, and during the Trump administration that sometimes made the network a target of criticism. In 2017, former ESPN SportsCenter anchor Jemele Hill criticized Trump on Twitter, calling him "a white supremacist." She was suspended for the controversy and has since left the network.

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