Senator Lindsey Graham called Colin Kaepernick a “racist” after the activist and former NFL quarterback criticised America’s airstrike assassination of Iran’s top commander.
“He’s a loser on and off the field,” Graham said of Kaepernick in an interview on “Sunday Morning Futures” on Fox News. “It’s un-American. He’s a racist. If you’re looking for racism in America, Mr. Kaepernick, look in the mirror.”
In a tweet Saturday, Kaepernick described the hit on Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad as part of a pattern of “American terrorist attacks against Black and Brown people for the expansion of American imperialism.” Kaepernick became a target of relentless criticism by President Donald Trump for taking a knee during the national anthem before football games to protest police brutality and systemic racism in America.
Graham also lashed out at Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) after she called Trump a “monster” for threatening to target Iranian cultural sites in military attacks. Such attacks would violate international agreements on war and would fit the Defense Department’s definition of a war crime.
“AOC doesn’t know anything about the law of armed conflict, obviously,” Graham insisted on Fox.
In fact, deliberately targeting cultural sites, or the civilians gathered there, would be a war crime, according to several experts, including a former deputy general counsel of the Department of Defense:
Returning Fox News host Megyn Kelly also mocked Kaepernick on Twitter. “Everything is racist. Everything,” she wrote sarcastically. “Even fighting back against terrorists who kill Americans. Nike, feeling proud?”
Kaepernick was the face of Nike’s 30th anniversary “Just Do It” advertising campaign.
Filmmaker Ava DuVernay — the first Black woman to be nominated for a Best Director Golden Globe award for “Selma” — snapped back in a tweet to Kelly: “Educate yourself before you talk about racism and legitimate claims. You sound like what you are. Ignorant. Attention seeking. And desperate.”
NBC fired Kelly in 2018 after she defended blackface during an episode of her morning show on the network. Kelly later apologized for her comments.