Monday morning, after Mike Pence's nasty little stunt over the weekend, the NFL's Player's Association felt compelled the release a statement on their members constitutional rights:
NFL players are union members and part of the labor movement that has woven the fabric of America for generations. Our men and their families are also conscientious Americans who continue to be forces for good through our communities and some have decided to use their platform to peacefully raise awareness to issues that deserve attention.It is a source of enormous pride that some of the best conversations about these issues have taken place in our locker rooms in a respectful, civil and thoughtful way that should serve as a model for how all of us can communicate with each other. We should not stifle these discussions and cannot allow our rights to become subservient to the very opinions our Constitution protects. That is what makes us the land of the free and home of the brave.
Gregg Doyel is a sports columnist for the Indianapolis Star , Indiana's top newspaper. His Sunday column was harsh towards the state's former governor, accusing him of using the Colts in a cheap political p.r. stunt against the First Amendment.
Two weeks after President Trump decreed that NFL players who kneel during the national anthem should be fired, Vice President Mike Pence walked out of Lucas Oil Stadium on Sunday after about 20 members of the San Francisco 49ers knelt during the anthem. The 49ers were in town to play the Indianapolis Colts.Pence was in town to upstage Peyton Manning.What, you think he didn’t know the 49ers would kneel on Sunday? Pence knew. The 49ers are the one franchise, the only franchise, that have had at least one player kneel before every game since Colin Kaepernick was the first to do it in the 2016 preseason. Kaepernick played for the 49ers, of course. Last week, following Trump’s unpatriotic assertion that he would fire someone for exercising their First Amendment rights, more than half the San Francisco roster knelt.Pence knew.Hell, the media members that follow Pence were told before the game not to bother leaving their vans and enter Lucas Oil Stadium, according to a tweet from NBC News Vaughn Hillyard. They wouldn’t be there long, because Pence wouldn’t be there long. Trump, as Trump is wont to do, took credit in a tweet for Pence's walkout by saying he'd asked Pence to leave if anyone knelt.This was planned.
And he wrote that he is "stunned that the President-- and now Vice President-- of the United States would take such a public position against one of the greatest rights the U.S. Constitution grants us: freedom of speech. It’s one thing for you to rip NFL players for kneeling during the anthem. They have the right to kneel, and you have the right to hate it. You have the right to boo. You have the right to rise from your seat and leave the game. So many of my family members fought overseas, some of them not coming back completely whole, for you to have that right. So, boo. So, leave. You don’t have my agreement, but you have my support. But when the top two elected leaders of our democracy decide that political speech-- in this case, a silent and non-violent form of political speech-- is unacceptable to the point of walking out of the game where it happens, well, that’s chilling. That’s the kind of oppressive nonsense our ancestors were leaving when they crossed the Atlantic Ocean hundreds of years ago."He also asked "how much taxpayer money did Pence waste to make this grandiose statement of political oppression, anyway? He traveled here with his usual contingent of aides and bodyguards, and he didn’t fly standby on Delta. Chew on that for just a minute." Figures I've seen range from $250,000 on the low end to as much as $400,000. As Philip Bump mentioned Monday morning in the Washington Post, "Pence’s appearance at the game and his well-coordinated exit from it was staged... Pence’s flight to Indianapolis was planned for weeks; his social-media response ready to go with a graphic immediately after he left the stadium. It’s an impressive level of preparation for an administration, as it turns out, focused on goading the president’s base into anger at black athletes. The trip wasn’t free, and the idea that it was a cost savings is ridiculous. But the really galling aspect of Pence’s jaunt was that it demonstrated the sort of issue on which the administration is deliberate about having its act together."So what about the quickie trip out to California from Indianapolis? That wasn't just something Pence threw together at the last minute either. As Alexei Koseff of the Sacramento Bee explained "If Democrats are going to take back control of the House of Representatives next year, their path travels straight through California. Half of the 14 remaining members of the state’s Republican congressional delegation won last November in districts that went to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton." And those were the seats Pence-- and Kevin McCarthy-- are trying to save for the GOP.
After arriving yesterday for an event in Beverly Hills, Pence is scheduled to make three more stops across the state today, starting this morning in Bakersfield, McCarthy’s hometown.Republican National Committeeman Shawn Steel will host a luncheon with Pence at Newport Beach’s Pelican Hill Golf Club, according to the Orange County Register. Four of the seven targeted members-- Reps. Darrell Issa of Vista, Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa, Ed Royce of Fullerton and Mimi Walters of Laguna Niguel-- represent portions of Orange County, which selected a Democrat for president for the first time in 80 years in 2016. Pence finishes the evening in Sacramento, according to details provided to The Bee. The event, at the Hyatt Regency on L Street, includes a VIP roundtable, a photo reception and a dinner starting at 8:30 p.m.
Ted Lieu (D-CA) is delighted Pence is in California. Yesterday he told us that "Pence supports Trump's deficit-exploding tax plan, which also disproportionately hurts Californians by eliminating the state and local income tax deduction. In addition, Pence spent over $242,000 of taxpayers money to fly to a football game and then leave, purely as a PR stunt. As the Vice Chair of the Western Region for the DCCC, I am pleased there will be pictures of Pence standing next to vulnerable Republican Members of Congress."None of the California Democratic candidates I spoke to seemed concerned either. Sam Jammal, the progressive taking on Ed Royce (CA-39), had a great attitude, much like Lieu's: "Welcome to Southern California Vice President Pence! We voted for Hillary, not your boss. Though you may still think we are living in the 1950's and this is the old Nixon Orange County of yesterday, we actually have nothing in common with you today. It's 2018 and we believe in science, support women's rights, respect our LGBTQ friends, value immigrants and believe the economy shouldn't just work for the 1%. Take some time to admire our coast, diversity and culture. It might do you some good when you return to DC. Before you leave, take plenty of photos with Ed Royce. He will pretend you aren't friends this time next year, but we all know he is your most loyal Yes Man."Laura Oatman, the progressive running for the Orange County seat Dana Rohrabacher occupies, sent me the photo above from the protests along Pence's route to the Pelican Hill Golf Club where he's raised campaign funds from GOP fat cats trying to keep Rohrabacher in office. "Pence’s stunt yesterday is right out of Donald Trump’s sophomoric playbook," she told us. "Pretending to protest a legitimate protest, his political prank cost taxpayers over $200K. And today he has the audacity to come to my hometown to raise money for our very 'patriotic' Dana Russiabacker. I wonder if he was surprised by the number of true patriots in Newport Beach who were out there protesting his visit?"Kia Hamadanchy is one of the progressives running for the CA-45 seat held-- but not lived in-- by Trump rubber-stamp Mimi Walters. He's not surprised about Pence's fundraiser for her in Rohrabacher's district (where she lives.) "It's no wonder that Mike Pence is coming to Orange County to raise money for Mimi Walters. Why wouldn't he for the person who by all accounts is one of Donald Trump's favorite members of Congress and who has backed his agenda wholeheartedly and without question? It's also not surprising that Mimi Walters prefers that Mike Pence come raise money for her in the district in which she actually lives in, not the one she represents. At the end of the day its doesn't matter how many times Mike Pence comes to Orange County to raise money for her. Mimi Walters has not been accountable or accessible to her constituents and come November 2018 she will see that all the money raised in the world is going to allow her to escape or hide her record of supporting Donald Trump every single step of the way."Ricardo Franco is way up in the Central Valley, running for the seat Devin Nunes is clinging to. Pence was in the area with McCarthy Sunday. The right-of-center DCCC establishment candidate, Andrew Janz, is off in DC hobnobbing with lobbyists and corrupt politicians but Franco is working in the district to help make CA-22 voters aware of what we're all facing with the rise of Trumpism. "After Pence's staged walk-out this weekend from an NFL game, it's clear that he's also willing to waste taxpayer money and any credibility he had simply to do 45's bidding," he told us. "His trip to deep-blue California to save House seats targeted by the DCCC shows they're desperate. I doubt Republicans can hold onto seats simply relying on the base Trump depended on to get elected. However, one thing is clear: Pence and other Republicans would do better to save themselves by actually passing good, meaningful legislation to boost their resumes rather than raising money to spread more lies. He can now join our local Congressman Devin Nunes as one of Trump's lap-dogs. Pence will tour California this week because Republicans know that Trump's presence would be ill-received, and Nunes will attend a GOP fundraiser next week in wealthy San Mateo County instead of meeting with constituents here. The GOP is trying to perpetuate a cycle of failure they started back in November: raise money from the wealthy and special interests to win seats in government, fail to get anything done, then blame Democrats to raise more money... all while forgetting about regular, working-class people trying to feed families."
