On Friday night, President Trump went to Alabama
to campaign for a Republican Senate candidate.
Although I don't remember the candidate's name
or anything about him because, instead,
Trump decided to attack the NFL.
Today, if you hit too hard, right, if they hit too hard,
15 yards! Throw him out of the game.
They had that last week.
I watched for a couple of minutes.
And two guys, just really, beautiful tackle.
Boom! 15 yards.
The referee gets on television,
his wife is sitting at home; she's so proud of him.
They're ruining the game.
(laughter)
Like, forget being president,
what kind of a human being wants more brain damage?
Like, how can one person be on the wrong side
of everything in history?
I'm just waiting. Like...
(cheers and applause)
I'm just... I'm just waiting for Trump to be, like,
(mimics Trump): "What's with all these seat belts, folks?
"I remember a time when people weren't afraid
"to go through the windshield head first.
"Head first, dust yourself off,
shake hands and do it again."
(cheers and applause)
(normal voice): What are you talking about?
And also, and also, who is Donald Trump
to say that football is too soft? Really?
You play golf, a sport where the biggest danger
us when you aren't even playing.
That? That?
But Trump's comments on tackling,
they-they barely registered in the news,
because all of Trump's speeches
are basically like gas station bathrooms. Right?
You can only really complain about one thing at a time.
You know? It's like,
"Yeah, I know the sink's broken, but I'm more concerned
"about the dead body in the stall next to mine.
That's, that's my issue."
And for most people, the most outrageous thing
was what the president said next.
You see those people taking the knee
when they're playing our great national anthem.
(audience reacts)
Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners,
when somebody disrespects our flag,
to say get that son of a bitch off the field right now?
Out. He's fired.
He's fired!
I like... I like how he remembered
it was his catchphrase only after he'd said it.
(imitates Trump): "He's fired. Oh, wait-- he's fired!"
So, all right, so just so we're on the same page,
when Nazis were protesting in Charlottesville,
Trump said, "Some of these were very fine people,
"very fine people, And aren't we all Nazis, really?
Aren't we all, huh? In some way, huh?"
But then, when black football players protest peacefully
by taking a knee during the anthem,
he calls them sons of bitches who should be fired?
Now, look, I don't know if Trump is racist, but I do know
he definitely prefers white people to black people.
I can say that with confidence. With confidence.
(cheering, applause)
And also, and also, if Donald Trump's greatest concern
is the disrespecting of the American flag,
you know what should really piss him off?
The Confederate flag, that's what should piss him off.
'Cause that's basically waving a picture of your ex around.
That's what that is.
That flag is disrespec...
It's like-it's like waving a picture of your ex.
And your girlfriend's like, "Hey. Hey, that's
really disrespectful to me." And you're like,
"Oh, no, this has nothing to do with you.
"I'm just honoring my heritage.
And also I'm building a monument of Susan on the front lawn."
So, on the one hand, you have sons of bitches,
on the other hand, you have
the president of the United States saying a private citizen
should be fired for expressing an opinion
that the president doesn't like,
which sounds very dictatory to me. All right?
Because when Trump tells the NFL owners
"You should fire these players," if they don't fire the players,
they're basically going against the president, right?
And if the players take a knee,
now they're going against the president.
But you realize until this weekend,
the knee had nothing to do with the president.
Nothing at all to do with Trump.
At all.
Colin Kaepernick... Colin Kaepernick started kneeling
back when Obama was in office.
This had nothing to do with Donald Trump.
And luckily, to the NFL's credit,
they stood up to the bully in chief.
REPORTER: The president versus the players.
Hundreds of athletes sending a message to President Trump.
REPORTER 2: From coast to coast, even in London, players sending
that message to the president from the football field,
linking arms like Patriots quarterback Tom Brady,
hundreds kneeling, some raising fists.
REPORTER 3: The majority of Steelers players choosing
to stay in the locker room
until after the anthem was over.
Some singers even showing their solidarity,
taking a knee along with players.
REPORTER 4: Many owners taking the field, throwing
their support behind their teams.
Owners from eight teams, during the anthem,
side by side with their players.
O-Okay, wait, hold up.
Who, uh...
Who the hell is that with the mustache?
I... I didn't know you could make enough money in vaudeville
to buy a football team. That's, uh...
That's a lot of money.
But it was important... it was important that
the weekend's protests included not just the NFL players,
but the owners, too.
'Cause when you think about how powerful this is,
a lot of these owners supported Donald Trump. Yeah.
So you know it hurts his Horcrux to see them
taking the players' side in this standoff.
You know it got to him.
It also makes for the world's easiest Where's Waldo?, right?
Just try and figure out who pays the other people to play.
Who-who do you think...
who do you think is not playing? Who's paying?
So after America's most popular sport turned
on the commander in chief, uh, he did what any
insane person would do in this situation-- he doubled down.
When you get on your knee and you don't respect
the American flag or the anthem,
that's not being treated with respect.
This has nothing to do with race.
I've never said anything about race.
This has nothing to do with race or anything else.
This has to do with respect for our country
and respect for our flag.
I think it's very disrespectful to our country.
Oh.
First of all, nicely played.
-(applause) -Nicely played.
Uh, but let's work through what President Trump just said.
These players aren't trying to disrespect the country.
Let's start with that. They're trying to peacefully protest
police treatment of black people in America, right?
If they wanted to disrespect the country,
they wouldn't kneel silently.
They would do crazy things,
like insult Gold Star families
or make fun of POWs like John McCain
or say that America is morally equivalent to Putin's Russia.
That's the kind of (bleep) they would do
if they were trying to disrespect the country.
(cheering and applause)
Like, did you know...
did you know that Colin Kaepernick
used to sit on the bench during the anthem?
That's what he used to do, sit on the bench during the anthem,
until a former NFL player who is also a veteran, Nate Boyer,
told Kaepernick, "Look, man,
there's a better way to do this."
We sort of came to a middle ground,
where he would take a knee alongside his teammates.
Soldiers take a knee in front of a fallen brother's grave,
you know, to show respect.
He said, "I think that would be...
I think... I think that would be really powerful."
Yeah. So you see there, Kaepernick changed his protest
to take a knee, because, clearly,
he does respect the troops.
And, still, President Trump called him out in a way
that he never did to the Nazis in Charlottesville.
So, in my opinion, this has everything to do with race.
And if you say it doesn't,
I-I just think it's very disrespectful to the country.