Right-wing activist, radio host, and pastor E.W. Jackson, who recently said that anyone who doesn’t blame China for the COVID-19 pandemic should be investigated for treason, used his “The Awakening” radio program yesterday to call for the NBA to be investigated for treason because of its business ties to China.
Jackson, who was the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor of Virginia in 2013 and unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the U.S. Senate in 2018, has a penchant for baselessly accusing those with whom he disagrees of treason. This time, he was angry that the NBA is allowing players to kneel during the national anthem, so he railed against the league and suggested that it might be committing treason by somehow connecting Chinese spies with Americans who have access to national security information.
"I think we're at a point where we do need to have some investigations of the relationships of some of our citizens to the communist Chinese regime," Jackson said. "You're not free to undermine our national security. You're not free to enter into relationships that could risk the lives and well-being of Americans and the national security of the American people. You're not free to do that. And frankly, I think that a case can be made that the NBA, that Google, maybe Apple, maybe Microsoft, and a number of these other big tech companies, and maybe some other technology companies that don't immediately come to mind may well be committing treason against the United States of America."
"You say, 'Well, how could the NBA be committing treason? They're only a sports league,'" Jackson continued. "The NBA has tentacles and influence into all kinds of areas of the American culture and institutions. It is an extremely wealthy, powerful, and influential organization. ... They don't have to directly have access to national security matters or to national intelligence or military matters, but they might know people who do. They can certainly give access to those people that the Chinese government wants to have access to those people. Because if they're willing to stand up on national television and make excuses for this brutal communist regime, what else might they be willing to do?"
