MIKE PENCE/PROTESTS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump on Monday [10-9-17] morning doubled down on Vice President Mike Pence’s trip to the Indianapolis Colts game Sunday, saying it was ‘long planned.’…
Pence left an Indianapolis Colts game on Sunday after several players on the opposing San Francisco 49ers team kneeled in protest during the national anthem.
‘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 wrote on Twitter on his official @VP account following his departure.
Trump also praised Pence’s decision to leave in a tweet Sunday, adding that if any players kneeled, he had asked Pence to leave the stadium.
The tweets, along with Pence’s subsequent trip to Los Angeles, have prompted some to speculate that the vice president’s departure was a pre-planned stunt.
Pence’s office put out a statement Sunday night, responding to critics: ‘The Vice President was not going to miss the Las Vegas memorial prayer walk on Saturday, which he was honored to attend on behalf of President Trump. If the Vice President did not go to Indiana for the Colts game, he would have flown back to D.C. for the evening – which means flying directly over Indiana. Instead, he made a shorter trip to Indiana for a game that was on his schedule for several weeks.’
The 49ers are the former team of quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who in 2016 started the protest of kneeling during the anthem as a way to bring attention to police mistreatment of African-Americans.”
-Rebecca Morin, “Trump says Pence’s trip to NFL game was ‘long planned’,” Politico, Oct. 9, 2017 09:00am