Bishop E.W. Jackson, a conservative activist and the 2013 GOP nominee for lieutenant governor in Virginia, linked NFL players’ recent protests during the National Anthem to President Obama, saying yesterday that if we had “a black president who was willing to express sincere affection, honor, respect for the flag, for the national anthem, for our country,” the players wouldn’t be protesting.
“You know, I don’t want to draw too direct a line, but I think this is worth saying,” Jackson told radio host John Fredericks. “I think that if we had had for the last seven and a half years, a black president who was willing to express sincere affection, honor, respect for the flag, for the National Anthem, for our country, I think people like [Colin] Kaepernick would have been hard pressed to do what he is doing.”
Instead, Jackson said, Obama “goes abroad and criticizes our country” and “refused to wear the American flag lapel pin” during his 2008 campaign.
“Frankly, we really need a president who loves our country and is willing to give a full-throated expression of [it],” he said, “I think that would have damped down a lot of this nonsense, but right now it seems to be open season on America.”
