Jackson Lee Kneels During Congressional Speech 'in Honor of the First Amendment'PJ Media, Sep 25, 2017, Bridget Johnson
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) took a knee on the floor of the House tonight during a special order by the Congressional Black Caucus focused on rooting out racism and defending the First Amendment.
"Someone had the lack of judgment to provoke the situation and call their mothers a name," Jackson Lee said of President Trump using "son of a bitch" last week to refer to NFL players who knelt during the National Anthem in protest of racial injustice.
"I refuse to accept that as a standard of leadership for the highest office in the world -- and even if you never understand it... if you think you're playing to your base, if you're not the unifier, we will continue to stand in the gap and racism is going to be under our foot," she said. "And you know where else it's going to be? It's going to be under our knee. Because we in the Congressional Black Caucus have always stood for what is right... there is no basis in the First Amendment that says you cannot kneel on the National Anthem or in front of the flag."
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CBC Chairman Cedric Richmond (D-La.) in a statement earlier today faulted NFL owners who issued statements in support of their players' right to free speech without acknowledging why they protested. "While a few of these statements mentioned ‘social injustice,’ ‘racial divides,’ and ‘societal issues,’ none of them explicitly mentioned the reason why Mr. Kaepernick and many others (professional athletes, celebrities, elected officials, and citizens) are taking a knee during the National Anthem," he said.
“They are taking a knee to protest police officers who kill unarmed African Americans – men and women, adults and children, parents and grandparents – with impunity. They are taking a knee to protest a justice system that says that being Black is enough reason for a police officer to fear for his or her life," Richmond said. “Those words were missing from the statements I read despite the fact that 70 percent of NFL players are Black and many of them, as well as their family and friends, have experienced racial profiling by police that leaves too many unarmed African Americans injured or dead."
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