ESPN host Jemele Hill has revealed that her mother called the White House because she was upset with what Trump and his administration said about her daughter.
Hill came under fire last year for calling Trump a ‘white supremacist’ and ‘unqualified and unfit’ to be a president, as well as a ‘bigot’.
The White House retorted that Hill’s comments should be a ‘fireable offense’, leading to ESPN suspending the commentator from their show SportsCenter.
The president also tweeted that with Hill on air, ESPN’s ratings have ‘tanked’.
Speaking on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, Hill said that her mother is ‘very angry’ with the media coverage her daughter has received and let the White House know she is ‘not very pleased’ with the president.
Jemele Hill said in an interview that her mother (left) called the White House because she was upset with comments the president made about her daughter
Hill came under fire last year for calling Trump a ‘white supremacist’ and ‘bigot’ and Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Hill’s comments should be a ‘fireable offense’
President Trump tweeted in response to Hill’s comments about him made in September
‘Obviously I have been written about a lot,’ Hill said on the radio show.
‘My mother is very angry at a lot of the coverage. There’s some particular people in the highest office she’s not very pleased with either, and so, as a result, I have to tell her to calm down. My mother told me she actually called the White House. I was like, ”What are you doing?”’
Hill said she does not know what her mother said in the message and she doesn’t want to know for ‘plausible deniability’.
It appears her mother called the White House’s general line which is available to the public.
ESPN did not fire Hill for the comments, despite Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ suggestion, but instead suspended the host.
During a White House briefing on hurricane relief, Sanders said she thought Hill should be fired for her ‘outrageous’ remarks.
‘I’m not sure if he’s aware but I think that’s one of the more outrageous comments that anyone could make,’ Sanders replied.
‘And certainly is something that I think is a fireable offense by ESPN.’
Hill called President Trump ‘a white supremacist’ in a social media rant in September, something that Sanders called ‘outrageous’ and a ‘fireable offense’
After Sanders’ comments, Hill apologized for painting the sports network in an ‘unfair light’ with her controversial remarks about President Donald Trump.
She said in a statement that comments in which she called Trump a ‘white supremacist’ and ‘bigot’ were her ‘personal beliefs’, and apologized for bringing ESPN into the issue.
‘My comments on Twitter expressed my personal beliefs,’ she said in a statement she posted on Twitter on Wednesday. ‘My regret is that my comments and the public way I made them painted ESPN in an unfair light. My respect for the company and my colleagues remains unconditional.’
Hill had tweeted in September that Trump is a ‘bigot’ and a ‘white supremacist who has largely surrounded himself w/other white supremacists.’
She also called him ‘unqualified and unfit to be president’ and said that ‘if he were not white, he would never have been elected’.
The channel distanced itself from the host’s remarks on Tuesday when its ESPN PR Twitter account tweeted: ‘The comments on Twitter Jemele Hill regarding the president do not represent the position of ESPN.
‘We have addressed this with Jemele and she recognizes her actions were inappropriate.’
She said Trump is ‘unqualified and ‘unfit’ for the role presidency
The comments, which have since been deleted, received backlash and praise