In an interview with SiriusXM Progress
Radio, out actor-singer Jussie Smollett weighed in on President
Donald Trump's attack on the NFL.
While campaigning last week for Alabama
Senator Luther Strange, who on Tuesday lost his GOP primary to Roy
Moore, Trump blasted NFL players who kneel in protest during the
national anthem. The president said that players who protest should
be fired.
During the 2016 season, Colin
Kaepernick became the first player to take such a stand. He said he
was protesting police brutality and racial injustice in America.
“He’s a pig, a racist, a horrible
human being,” Smollett
said of the president.
“To me Colin Kaepernick is very
patriotic. He’s doing what he’s supposed to be doing as a citizen
of this country. If anything, sadly, the person who was falsely
elected to be president of the United States is actually the least
patriotic person that we’ve seen in a long time.”
“It’s a cliché but the power of
the people is stronger than the people in power,” he added. “And
we are in power. Look at the conversation... Of course, it’s hard,
but you must remember: We’re fighting the same things our parents
and our grandparents and our great grandparents were fighting
against. But let us not forget that we have it better the our
parents, our grandparents and our great grandparents had it. Let’s
utilize what we have to come together. And I think that is what we’re
seeing.”
Following Trump's election, Smollett,
who plays gay performer Jamal Lyon on Fox's Empire, sent a
powerful message to Trump in his video Fucked Up World.
(Related: Jussie
Smollett sends message to Trump in F**ked
Up World.)