ESPN Host Goes Off on His Own Network For Banning Political Talk: We Don’t Have ‘The Stomach’ to Fight Trump

An ESPN host is speaking out against his company’s policy requiring him and others on the network to stick to sports.

In a scorching four-minute segment on his show Thursday, Dan Le Batard blasted ESPN for banning political talk — unless they’re specifically covering an athlete who has spoken out. Speaking on his TV-simulcasted ESPN Radio program, Le Batard went off — voicing his frustration on not being allowed to criticize President Donald Trump‘s rally on Wednesday, which he slammed as “un-American.”

“There’s a racial division in this country that’s being instigated by the president,” Le Batard said. “And we here at ESPN haven’t had the stomach for that fight.”

Le Batard traced the no-politics edict back to the feud between the White House and former ESPN host Jemele Hill.

“Jemele did some things on Twitter and you saw what happened after that,” Le Batard said. “And then here, all of a sudden, nobody talks politics on anything — unless we can use one of these sports figures as a meat-shield in the most cowardly possible way to discuss these subjects.”

He added, “We don’t talk about what is happening unless there’s some sort of weak, cowardly sports angle that we can run it through, when sports has always been a place where this stuff changes.”

The host went on to call the company’s policy a “weak-ass shield,” and closed his monologue by zeroing in on the “send her back” chants at Wednesday night’s rally.

“[I]f you’re not calling it abhorrent, obviously racist, dangerous rhetoric, you’re complicit.”

Watch above, via ESPNNEWS