Stephen A. Smith Hits Trump Over Pence Protest: ‘The President Has…Hijacked This Issue’

“I don’t think there’s any question about it,” Stephen A. Smith said Monday when asked whether Vice President Mike Pence‘s planned early departure from the Colts vs. 49ers game was a publicity stunt.

Speaking about the issue on First Take, Smith, argued that President Donald Trump has diverted attention away from the NFL protesters’ cause — fighting racial and social oppression — and turned the protests into a referendum on patriotism.

“The President has successfully hijacked this issue,” Smith said. “He turned it into an issue about patriotism and beyond. He is catering to his base in the process.”

Smith thinks Trump’s motives for blasting the NFL protests are less than pure.

“His real agenda is going at the NFL community that didn’t let him in that good old boys club,” he said — referencing Trump’s failed attempt as a USFL owner to have the NFL merge with that league. “They didn’t let him in in the 1980s when we was an owner in the USFL. He has a history of exacting retribution to those who didn’t make him money.”

Whatever the President’s motives, Stephen A. Smith believes Trump has prevailed — for now.

“He has turned it into something the players didn’t intend to,” Smith said. “They have to find a different mechanism to have their voices heard. Because Trump has won this round.”

Watch above, via ESPN.

[featured image via screengrab]

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Follow Joe DePaolo (@joe_depaolo) on Twitter

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