ESPN disavows tweets by SportsCenter co-host
Hill calls Trump ‘a white supremacist’
BRISTOL, Conn. — ESPN distanced itself from anchor Jemele Hill’s tweets after she called President Donald Trump “a white supremacist” and “a bigot.”
“The comments on Twitter from Jemele Hill regarding the president do not represent the position of ESPN,” the network tweeted Tuesday from the account of its public relations department.
“We have addressed this with Jemele and she recognizes her actions were inappropriate.”
On Monday night, in a series of social media exchanges with other Twitter users, Hill said, “Donald Trump is a white supremacist who has largely surrounded himself w/ other white supremacists.”
Hill, an African-American co-host of the 6 p.m. broadcast of “SportsCenter,” also added that “Trump is the most ignorant, offensive president of my lifetime. His rise is a direct result of white supremacy. Period.”
In another tweet, she said, “Donald Trump is a bigot,” and
went on to criticize his supporters, adding “The height of white privilege is being able to ignore his white supremacy, because it’s of no threat to you. Well, it’s a threat to me.”
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said during a news conference on Wednesday that she was unsure whether the president was aware of Hill’s comments.
“But I think that’s one of the more outrageous comments that anyone could make, and certainly something that I think is a fire-able offense by ESPN,” Sanders said.
Disney-owned ESPN did not elaborate on any possible punishment for Hill, and she was on Tuesday evening’s “SportsCenter” broadcast as usual.
Hill’s tweet about Trump came Monday as a reply to three others who had joined a conversation sparked by an earlier tweet about musician Kid Rock, who has spent much of the summer teasing about a Republican run for the U.S. Senate.
“He loves black people so much that he pandered to racists by using a (Confederate) flag that unquestionably stands for dehumanizing black people,” she said via Twitter about Kid Rock.