Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson said there is an internal effort aimed at persuading President Trump to change his position on kneeling during the national anthem.
During a Monday interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt, Carson revealed that several administration officials are urging Trump to recant his stated opposition to kneeling during the national anthem, which the president has considered a protest against “our Great American flag.”
“So is there any chance you might persuade the president that he ought not to be upset with players kneeling during the national anthem?” Hewitt asked Carson, who is the only black member of Trump’s Cabinet.
“I don’t think he has manifested as much animosity in that region lately. And I think we just continue to work him. He’ll get there,” Carson responded.
Carson, an early supporter of Trump and retired neurosurgeon who ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, stopped short of saying that systemic racism is present in the United States.
“I’ve seen systemic racism growing up. I mean, we are so much better than that now. Do we still have racist people? Of course. You know, you’re always going to have people who think superficially and don’t think deeply. But you know, that doesn’t mean that the whole system is corrupted and needs to be changed,” Carson said. “But if you’re looking to fundamentally change a society, and there are those who are looking to do that, you must first prove that it is dysfunctional. So anything that you can do that will create dysfunction helps to bolster that argument.”
Protests during football games first began when then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick sat during the national anthem in 2016 to protest police brutality and racial inequality.
“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” he told NFL Media in 2016. “To me, this is bigger than football, and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way.”
After Kaepernick spoke with Nate Boyer, a former member of the U.S. Army Special Forces, about the level of respect exhibited for the national anthem, he changed his tactic to kneeling during the anthem before every game.
Trump escalated the controversy in the fall of 2017, urging football team owners to fire players who kneel during the national anthem.
“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when someone disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out. He’s fired. He’s fired!'” Trump said, greeted by wide applause from his supporters.
