Doug Baldwin attacks Trump in midst of anthem controversy: 'He's an idiot, plain and simple'
Seattle Seahawks receiver Doug Baldwin didn’t hold back in his criticism of Donald Trump following the president’s comments regarding the NFL’s new national anthem policy.
After the NFL mandated that all players on the field must stand for the pregame playing of the anthem, Trump said on “Fox & Friends” that perhaps those who don’t stand “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,” the president said of the new policy in an interview that aired Thursday. “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.”
Baldwin held a news conference at Seahawks headquarters just hours after Trump’s comments aired, and he called the president an “idiot” for his remarks.
Doug Baldwin on President Trump’s comments today about NFL players: “He’s an idiot, plain and simple.” #Seahawks @thenewstribune pic.twitter.com/U7ws3bGLED
— Gregg Bell (@gbellseattle) May 24, 2018
“He’s an idiot, plain and simple,” Baldwin said. “I mean, listen, I respect the man because he’s a human being, first and foremost. But he’s being more divisive, which is not surprising. It is what it is.”
“But for him to say anybody who doesn’t follow his viewpoints, or his constituents’ viewpoints should be kicked out of the country, it’s just not very empathetic,” he added. “It’s not very American-like, to me. It’s not very patriotic. It’s not what this country was founded upon. So it’s kind of ironic to me that the president of the United States is contradicting what our country is really built on.”
The new policy gives players the option to stay in the locker room or come out onto the field. Teams will be fined for any personnel who do not stand for the anthem, but players themselves will not be subject to fines.
Baldwin’s comments came the same day Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall called Trump’s remarks “disgusting.”
“I say ‘disgusting’ because of our First Amendment rights,” Marshall said, per ABC News. “We have freedom of speech, right? Freedom to protest? Because somebody decides to protest something, now have to be kicked out of the country? That’s not how things should work, in my opinion.”
“Just because somebody disagrees with something, or if I didn’t stand for the anthem, or if I don’t like what’s going on, that’s basically him saying I should be kicked out the country.”
Marshall knelt prior to eight games during the 2016 season and again in Week 3 of last season. He was a teammate of Colin Kaepernick, who sparked the anthem protests, at the University of Nevada and stays in touch with the quarterback.
Other NFL players haven’t directly called out Trump, but have still criticized the NFL’s anthem ruling.
Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins said “everyone loses” with the new policy, though he indicated he won’t let it silence him or stop him from fighting.
Jenkins’ teammate, Chris Long, posted a message on Twitter in which he argued that NFL owners don’t love America any more than the players demonstrating during the anthem.
https://twitter.com/JOEL9ONE/status/999408653445795840
If the NFL’s goal was to sweep the anthem issue under the rug with the new policy, it likely created the opposite effect. Sports Illustrated’s Robert Klemko reported that players may even search for ways to skirt the new rule “just to spite the NFL.”
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