Former President Donald Trump unloaded on NBA star LeBron James on
Thursday after James tweeted out a photo this week targeting a police
officer who saved a black girl from being stabbed.
“LeBron James should focus on basketball rather than presiding over the
destruction of the NBA, which has just recorded the lowest television
RATINGS, by far, in the long and distinguished history of the League,”
Trump said. “His RACIST rants are divisive, nasty, insulting, and
demeaning. He may be a great basketball player, but he is doing nothing
to bring our Country together!”
Trump’s comments bashing James, who is a left-wing Democrat activist,
comes after James faced intense backlash this week after he tweeted the
photograph of the police officer, writing, “YOU’RE NEXT” with an emoji
of an hourglass, a symbol that signifies that time is running out.
Outrage over James’ tweet was so severe that he deleted the tweet less
than two hours after posting it and released a statement over the
incident, but did not apologize for his actions.
“ANGER does [sic] any of us any good and that includes myself!” James
said. “Gathering all the facts and educating does though! My anger still
is here for what happened that lil girl. My sympathy for her family and
may justice prevail!”
“I’m so damn tired of seeing Black people killed by police,” James
continued. “I took the tweet down because its being used to create more
hate -This isn’t about one officer. it’s about the entire system and
they always use our words to create more racism. I am so desperate for
more ACCOUNTABILITY.”
The National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) responded to James’ tweet
by writing: “@KingJames, with his vast resources & influence, should
educate himself and, frankly, has a responsibility to do so, on the
facts before weighing in. This is disgraceful & extremely reckless. The
officer saved a young girl’s life. No amount of gaslighting will change
that fact.”
.@KingJames, with his vast resources & influence, should
educate himself and, frankly, has a responsibility to do so,
on the facts before weighing in. This is disgraceful &
extremely reckless.
The officer saved a young girl's life. No amount of gaslighting
will change that fact.
pic.twitter.com/GTHn1VAAlf
— National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) (@GLFOP) April 21,
2021
Michael Woods, the interim police chief of Columbus, said at a press
conference that video of the incident showed “the female with the
knife,” who the police officer shot and killed, was “attempting to stab”
another female in the video.
“Normally we don’t provide information this soon, but we understand the
public’s need, desire, and expectation to have transparency upon what
happened,” Woods said. “We’ve worked very hard tonight to provide you a
short video of the officer, the first officer that arrived at scene and
this is the officer that did ultimately fire his weapon.”
“We know, based on this footage, the officer took action to protect
another young girl in our community, but a family is grieving tonight
and this young 15-year-old girl will never be coming home,” Columbus
Mayor Andrew Ginther said during the press briefing. “We think it’s
critically important to share as much information as possible, as
quickly as possible. So we’ll continue to share footage, other
information in the hours and days ahead, making sure we’re not in any
way shape or form compromising the independent investigation being done
by BCI. We felt transparency and sharing this footage as incomplete as
it may be at this time is critically important to make sure we were
sharing good accurate information about what transpired today with the
public and for this grieving family.”
--
Trump won.