On Tuesday, Congressman Al Green claimed that President Donald Trump’s strongly-worded rebuke of athletes refusing to stand for the National Anthem was an impeachable offense.
Standing at the podium before the Speaker of the House, the Democratic Representative gave a colorful speech in which he proceeded to “rise…as a proud American.” With variations on a theme, Green riffed:
“I rise today…to make comments that I never thought I’d have to make…I rise today to defend, denounce, and announce…I rise today…to defend any mother who has been called a dog, because her son has engaged in peaceful protest…I rise today…to defend any son who is called the son of a dog because he engaged in peaceful protest…I rise today to denounce these comments that have been made, because they have brought discourse to a new low…I rise…to say…that this is not what America is all about—calling people ‘SOB’s’…and we know what a ‘B’ is: it’s a dog…I rise because my heart tells me that I must do something…I rise to announce that on next week…I will bring a priveleged resolution…and I will call for the impeachment of the President of the United States of America."
Clearly, Representative Green is pro-rising, anti-dog, and anti-Donald J. Trump.
The Commander-in-Chief has caught flack in other circles for his salty language against sports figures refusing to stand to honor the American flag: earlier this week, Cornell Brooks, former president of the NAACP, told Wolf Blitzer that the President’s use of the term “son of the B-word [was] racial code for the N-word across America.”
Huh?
Despite his critics, President Trump maintains, as he tweeted Monday, that “the issue of kneeling has nothing to do with race. It is about respect for our country, Flag, and National Anthem.”
Still, some on the left will continue to frame Trump’s defense of the flag as an attack on minorities, no matter how completely unfounded that notion is.
To Al Green, the President’s strongly-stated message is cause for removal from office. However, surveys reveal that Americans agree with Trump: when “The Star-Spangled Banner” plays, they want athletes to do the very thing that Green is so fond of: they want them to rise.
