A Texas Democratic congresswoman followed in the footsteps of more than 100 black NFL players, kneeling on the floor of the House of Representatives Monday night.
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee said she was specifically opposing President Donald Trump and showing solidarity with the athletes who defied him.
‘I kneel in honor of them. I kneel in front of the flag and on this floor,’ Jackson Lee said.
Trump infuriated black leaders Friday night during a speech in Alabama by calling for NFL team owners to fire any ‘son of a b***h’ who dared not stand during the playing of the pre-game National Anthem.
Jackson Lee flatly called the president’s controversial statement ‘racism.’
Texas Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee stood up Monday night on the House floor for NFL players who decided to protest during the National Anthem
Then she knelt in front of the podium, saying she was responding to ‘racism’
Trump whipped a small ember into a national firestorm on Friday night when he said NFL teams should fire any ‘son of a b***h’ who kneels instead of standing during the National Anthem
‘I kneel in honor of the First Amendment. I kneel because the flag is a symbol for freedom,’ she said.
‘I kneel because I’m going to stand against racism. I kneel because I will stand with those young men and I’ll stand with our soldiers. And I’ll stand with America, because I kneel.’
The far-left Democrat said she knew of a young player in America’s top-shelf pro football league say ‘that he will kneel from now on.’
‘The only reason he is doing this,’ she said, ‘is that someone had the lack of judgment to provoke the situation and call their mothers a name.’
‘I refuse to accept that as a standard of leadership for the highest office in the world.’
Players from nearly every NFL team (pictured: the Buffalo Bills) took a knee this weekend to protest police treatment of young unarmed black men
Speaking for the Congressional Black Caucus, a group of lawmakers comprised almost exclusively of Democrats, she added that ‘we in the CBC have always stood for what is right.’
‘There is no basis in the First Amendment that says you can not kneel in the national anthem.’
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects Americans from government attempts to legally restrict their freedom of speech and expression.
The NFL’s official game operations manual says that the National Anthem ‘must be played prior to every NFL game, and all players must be on the sideline for the National Anthem.’
‘During the National Anthem, players on the field and bench area should stand at attention, face the flag, hold helmets in their left hand, and refrain from talking.’
California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters claimed over the weekend that Trump’s stand on the NFL protests should convince Democrats to be ‘ready for impeachment’
Trump said Tuesday morning on Twitter that ‘[t]he NFL has all sorts of rules and regulations. The only way out for them is to set a rule that you can’t kneel during our National Anthem!’
‘Ratings for NFL football are way down except before game starts, when people tune in to see whether or not our country will be disrespected!’ he added in another tweet.
‘The booing at the NFL football game last night, when the entire Dallas team dropped to its knees, was loudest I have ever heard. Great anger.’
During a weekend appearance on MSNBC, another Democratic congresswoman said the NFL flap could lead to Congress impeaching Trump.
California Rep. Maxine Waters claimed he ‘should not be the president of the United States.’
Trump tweeted on Tuesday that the NFL should have a strict rule against using the National Anthem as an occasion for public protest
‘And we’ve got to get ready for impeachment,’ she added, clapping her hands for emphasis.
‘It is absolutely outrageous and dangerous what he’s doing,’Waters said of Trump’s call for a league boycott.
‘He is about division. He is about signaling to that core group of his that this country that he wants to make great again is all about making it white.’