US Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday walked out of a National Football League (NFL) game after some players knelt during the US national anthem, a form of demonstration that began last year in silent protest against police violence toward racial minorities.
Pence was attending a game in his home state of Indiana between the Indianapolis Colts and the San Francisco 49ers.
When the national anthem was played before the start of the game, some 49ers knelt while some Colts, their arms locked, wore black T-shirts with the words “We Will” on the front and “Stand for equality, justice, unity, respect, dialogue, opportunity” on the back.
“I left today’s Colts game because [US] President [Donald] Trump and I will not dignify any event that disrespects our soldiers, our flag, or our national anthem,” Pence said in a statement issued by the White House.
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said after his team’s game on Sunday that he would bench players who disrespect the US flag.
“If there is anything that is disrespectful to the flag then we will not play,” Jones told reporters.
Asked about Pence’s departure, Jones said: “We cannot in the NFL in any way give the implication that we tolerate disrespecting the flag.”
“I know the vice president did leave, because in his opinion the teams were,” he said. “There is no question in my mind that the National Football League and the Dallas Cowboys are going to stand up for the flag.”
However, the NFL Players Association in a statement defended players’ right to protest.
“We should not stifle these discussions and cannot allow our rights to become subservient to the very opinions our Constitution protects,” the association said, adding, in words that borrowed from the US national anthem: “That is what makes us the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
After Pence’s departure, critics began to question whether he had only attended the game to make a production of leaving, saying he flew from Las Vegas on Saturday and was then going to fly to California on Sunday evening.
Pence had planned for “several weeks” to attend the Colts game, where former quarterback Peyton Manning was being honored, an official in his office said, asking not to be named.
Additionally, he made a last-minute decision to travel to Las Vegas for a prayer service on Saturday, the official said.
Trump said in a tweet on Sunday that he had asked Pence to leave the stadium “if any player kneeled, disrespecting our country.”
Pence’s team Indianapolis defeated San Francisco, 26-23, in overtime.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in