ESPN’s Jemele Hill refuses to back down from comments she made on Twitter earlier this week about President Donald Trump, but she said she’s regretted putting ESPN in an “unfair light.”
Days after calling Trump a White supremacist on Twitter, the ESPN host released a statement about what she called the “elephant in the room.” Hill wrote that the comments she made about Trump expressed her personal beliefs and that she has unconditional respect for ESPN and her colleagues:
So, to address the elephant in the room … #Facts pic.twitter.com/RTrIDD87ut
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) September 14, 2017
Hill’s statement came hours after White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called the ESPN host’s messages “a fireable offense.”
On Monday, Hill, who co-hosts ESPN’s “SC6” with Michael Smith, attacked the president in a series of tweets, labeling Trump a “white supremacist who has largely surrounded himself w/ other white supremacists.” She also said the president was ignorant and unfit to serve.
Donald Trump is a white supremacist who has largely surrounded himself w/ other white supremacists.
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) September 11, 2017
ESPN released a statement the following day saying Hill’s point of view does not represent the network.
ESPN Statement on Jemele Hill: pic.twitter.com/3kfexjx9zQ
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) September 12, 2017
On Wednesday, CNN reported that ESPN issued another statement indicating the network had accepted Hill’s apology: “Jemele has a right to her personal opinions, but not to publicly share them on a platform that implies that she was in any way speaking on behalf of ESPN. She has acknowledged that her tweets crossed that line and has apologized for doing so. We accept her apology.”
Hill’s words set off an unfortunate chain reaction of Trump supporters denouncing Hill using the N-Word:
@jemelehill … you and your opinion are a nothing burger! Is it ok for Trump to call you a nigger? No it isn’t so stop your rhetoric!
— TacoMan47 (@dingleberry47) September 13, 2017
Does your hateful disrespectful statement calling the President of the USA allow me to then call you a nigger @jemelehill?? What’s the diff? https://t.co/yTSVEWwIZE
— Cheers2016 🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@Sapphire6210) September 12, 2017
And just like Trump, his followers made a false equivalency, saying that calling someone a White supremacist is the same as calling a Black person the N-Word.
