Sunday on CNN’s “Newsroom,” while discussing Vice President Mike Pence leaving the NFL game between the Indianapolis Colts and San Francisco 49ers, “Reliable Sources” host Brian Stelter said it seemed “like it was a staged moment.”
Stelter said, “I got to be cynical about this for a moment. Vice President Pence was in Las Vegas yesterday speaking solemnly about the massacre there. Then he flew home to Indiana. He spent the night in Indiana and went to the game today. He’s about to head back to the west coast. It makes you wonder if he purposely wanted to go to the Colts game today in Indiana in order to make this statement, knowing that 49ers players were almost guaranteed to kneel. There have been players on the San Francisco team kneeling every single game. Pence and his team head into the game today, they had to have known there was going to be kneeling.”
He continued, “His statement almost seems written ahead of time, and it seems like it was a staged moment for Pence to walk out and make a statement about this. But clearly, he feels strongly about these anthem protests. He wanted to express his criticism of them. So maybe he is back watching the game from home.”
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