President Donald Trump jumped to Twitter on Monday to slam NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace for not apologizing for claiming that someone had left a “noose” in his garage.
Last month, track officials alerted NASCAR that what appeared to be a noose had been left hanging in the garage used by Bubba Wallace at the Talladega Superspeedway before the start of the later-postponed GEICO 500.
The report spurred the whole of the NASCAR community to stand up with Wallace in a show of force against racism. NASCAR even brought in the FBI to investigate the “crime.”
But the FBI soon determined that the so-called “noose” was just a pull rope on a garage door and many of the garages had them. There was no noose, no crime, and no racism.
Now, on July 6, President Trump is wondering via Twitter if Wallace — NASCAR’s only full-time black driver — has ever apologized to the NASCAR drivers and officials who supported him.
“Has @BubbaWallace apologized to all of those great NASCAR drivers & officials who came to his aid, stood by his side, & were willing to sacrifice everything for him, only to find out that the whole thing was just another HOAX?” Trump tweeted. “That & Flag decision has caused lowest ratings EVER!” the president tweeted on Monday.
Immediately after the FBI announced its findings, Wallace refused to accept the determination and called the garage door rope a “straight-up noose” that he felt was left specifically for him. But he later said he was glad that there was no “racism” involved even as he justified the investigation into the rope.
In the end, though, Wallace said he had no apologies for anyone and added that he would not have done anything differently.
Most recently, Wallace recently finished ninth during the NASCAR event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway over the weekend.
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