‘It’s Absurd’: Trump Officials Brush Off NBA Player Strikes Over Police Shooting

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An empty basketball court where the Milwaukee Bucks had been scheduled to play the Orlando Magic on Aug. 27. The Bucks and other NBA teams boycotted their games following the police shooting of a Black man in Kenosha, Wisc. earlier this week.

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On Wednesday, the Milwaukee Bucks said they would not play against the Orlando Magic in protest over Blake’s shooting. The 29-year-old remains hospitalized after he was shot seven times in the back by a Kenosha police officer on Sunday, sparking days of protests in Wisconsin. A 17-year-old from Illinois is under arrest after three protesters were shot, two fatally.

The NBA later postponed all three playoff games scheduled for Wednesday. The WNBA and MLB followed suit, postponing games Wednesday night.

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«We’re tired of the killings and the injustice,» Milwaukee Bucks guard George Hill told ESPN on Wednesday. The Bucks quickly put out a statement calling on the Wisconsin legislature to reconvene.

Lebron James, who plays for the Los Angeles Lakers, tweeted a message of support for the striking Bucks players. The Lakers did not play a scheduled game against the Portland Trailblazers on Wednesday night.

«F— THIS MAN!!!! WE DEMAND CHANGE. SICK OF IT,» he tweeted.

On Thursday, Kushner told Politico he would reach out to James. «Look, let’s both agree on what we want to accomplish and let’s come up with a common path to get there,» he said.

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Kushner pointed to the First Step Act, a criminal justice reform bill President Trump signed into law in 2018, as evidence that the White House has taken tangible action on social justice issues. But President Trump has frequently decried protests by professional athletes, namely Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the national anthem in protest of racial injustice.

«I think with the NBA, there’s a lot of activism, and I think that they’ve put a lot of slogans out,» Kushner said on Wednesday. «But I think what we need to do is turn that from slogans and signals to actual action that’s going to solve the problem.»

Marc Short, Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, was asked on CNN whether his boss might weigh in on the NBA strike.

«I don’t know that you’re going to see the administration weigh in on that one way or the other,» he said. «In my mind, it’s absurd, it’s silly.»

Trump campaign spokesperson Tim Murtaugh told reporters today that the president will mention what happened in Kenosha in his nomination speech Thursday, talking broadly about unrest in American cities like Minneapolis, Portland, Seattle, Chicago and now Kenosha. Trump and Pence have often portrayed American cities as violent and lawless, deploying those descriptions to bolster their warnings about a Biden presidency.

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«We will have law and order on the streets of America,» Pence said during his convention speech Wednesday evening. «Joe Biden would double down on the very policies that are leading to unsafe streets and violence in America’s cities.»

Both Biden and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, have weighed in with messages of support for the player strikes.

«This moment demands moral leadership,» Biden tweeted. «And these players answered by standing up, speaking out, and using their platform for good. Now is not the time for silence.»