52 pct disapprove of protest:
Americans largely disapprove of athletes staging protests during the national anthem but they also do not like President Donald Trump’s handling of the issue, according to two opinion polls published on Friday.
Fifty-two percent of the people surveyed by CBS News said they disapprove of protests during The Star-Spangled Banner while 38 percent said they approve.
In a separate poll done for CNN, 49 percent said players who protest by kneeling during the anthem are doing the “wrong thing” to express their political opinions.
Forty-three percent said they are doing the “right thing.”
While neither refers specifically to the issue of race, the twin polls come as America grapples with a protest movement that began last year when San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the anthem to draw attention to police brutality against African-Americans.
Both the CBS News and CNN pollsters said reactions were split along partisan lines.
Sixty-seven percent of Democrats in the CBS News poll approved of the protests while 85 percent of Republicans disapproved, numbers which were similar in the CNN poll.
Trump created a firestorm last week when he called on owners of National Football League teams to fire any “son of a bitch” who does not stand during the national anthem.
Trump’s comments prompted more players than ever to take a knee during the anthem at last week’s games while others linked arms in a rebuke to the president.