Pence stages game walkout to protest kneeling

THE WHITE HOUSE may have fumbled in its attack against the NFL.

Vice President Pence on Sunday walked out of a game between the Indianapolis Colts and the San Francisco 49ers after players kneeled during the national anthem to protest police brutality against blacks.

But within minutes, Pence’s walkout started to seem like a preplanned and likely expensive publicity stunt, with the White House signaling it predicted Pence would leave.

The football furor kept the faceoff between the White House and the NFL going for the third week in a row.

Before the game, Pence tweeted a photo of himself with his wife, Karen, at Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium and wrote that he was “looking forward to cheering” for their hometown team.

Social media users soon realized the photo was actually from November 2014 — because Pence tweeted it back then, too.

About 90 minutes later, the former Indiana governor said he left the hometown game after about 20 players from the 49ers kneeled. No Colts players joined them.

“I left today’s Colts game because @POTUS and I will not dignify any event that disrespects our soldiers, our Flag, or our National Anthem,” Pence tweeted.

He then fired off five tweets about his walkout within minutes. They included a paragraph-long statement explaining his exit and a picture from a White House photographer showing Pence and his wife standing for the anthem.

Reporters at the event immediately questioned if the entire incident was staged. A White House staffer had told the pool of journalists following Pence to stay in their vehicles, rather than enter the stadium, because there might be “an early departure from the game.”

Then President Trump chimed in, claiming he told Pence before the game to be ready for a boycott.

“I asked @VP Pence to leave stadium if any players kneeled, disrespecting our country. I am proud of him and @SecondLady Karen,” Trump tweeted.

The White House did not say how much Trump and Pence had planned in advance.

Also unclear was how much it cost for Pence to run out of the game. CNN estimated that his travel and security for his short stay may have cost at least $250,000.

He had flown from Las Vegas, where he attended a Saturday prayer service for last week’s massacre victims, to attend the game — then promptly flew from Indianapolis to Los Angeles for a Republican fund-raiser.

Pence’s departure turned yet another Sunday game into a political clash between the players and the Trump administration.

After Trump last month complained about the NFL’s kneeling demonstrations, saying protesting players should be fired, some members of every NFL team took a knee or locked arms before their games — including Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who took a knee with players before the national anthem was played at a game against the Arizona Cardinals on Sept. 25.

Jones said after Sunday’s loss to the Green Bay Packers that any of his players who refused to stand for the anthem would be benched.

“If there is anything disrespecting the flag, then we will not play, period,” Jones said.

Colin Kaepernick, the former 49ers quarterback who went unsigned by any team this season, started the kneeling trend last year to protest racial injustice and police brutality against black people.