ESPN opens up about possible Trump interview at national title game
President Donald Trump grabbed headlines in the sports world y deciding to attend Monday’s national championship game between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Georgia Bulldogs.
It was an interesting move considering the title game is chock full of NFL prospects, and Trump hasn’t exactly been on the best of terms with the NFL.
Trump lambasted the NFL and some of its players who chose to kneel or protest during the national anthem at a rally in September.
The NFL responded with league-wide defiance of Trump.
But Trump’s attendance at the national championship game also puts him in proximity of another familiar foe — ESPN.
ESPN owns the broadcasting rights to the College Football Playoff and Monday’s title game will be broadcast on ESPN.
Trump has had as frosty of a relationship with “The Worldwide Leader” as he does with the NFL.
SportsCenter anchor Jemele Hill drew widespread condemnation after she accused Trump of being a “white supremacist” on Twitter.
Hill’s comments even drew the rebuke of the White House, who described her actions as a firable offense.
So it should come as little surprise if Trump seems none too keen on giving ESPN the time of day while he attends the title game.
“We’re still taking to the White House. I don’t get the sense he’s going to do an interview,” Stephanie Druley, ESPN senior vice president for events and studio programs, told the Associated Press.
“We will, obviously, show him at the game when we see where he is sitting,” Druley added.
Druley said there were no ulterior motives for ESPN wanting to conduct an interview with Trump.
“It don’t think that’s necessary [to attempt to mend fences between ESPN and Trump],” Druley said.
“It’s the president. The president shows up at a sporting event, ideally, you document it and you’d like to talk to him. I don’t think this president makes it any different quite honestly. I don’t think we have a need to mend fences.”
ESPN recently came under more fire after social media personality Katie Nolan called Trump a “stupid person” and used expletives to describe him during an episode of Viceland’s “Desus and Mero” show.
Nolan has not been punished by ESPN.
While Trump and the White House have yet to comment on Nolan’s comments, considering how much the president likes to engage in social media, it’s almost a given Trump’s caught wind of the disparaging remarks.
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