ESPN host Dan LeBatard apparently didn’t get the company memo about being less political and went after President Donald Trump Monday for never “apologizing.”
“I heard that [Sean] Spicer was a part of the evening… Gosh I wish that the administration would do a little bit more laughing like that,” the host of “The Dan LeBatard Show with Stugotz” told his audience Monday. (RELATED: Kaepernick Voices Support For Jemele Hill)
“I mean Spicer got in the middle of the Emmys and made fun of himself,” LeBatard added. “But I just thought of this when Trump was fighting last week with ESPN and demanding that Jemele Hill be fired and an apology for an untruth be made and I just thought to myself is Donald Trump someone who is physically capable of an apology?”
“Like I’m just dead serious,” he continued. “Do you think that he is? Put it on the poll. Do you think he is someone …because he hasn’t apologized publicly for anything. Have you guys ever heard Donald Trump apologize? The idea of asking for apologies when you yourself are not someone who will apologize for anything, is funny.”
“Maybe he said like ‘I’m sorry but I’m not wrong,'” Stugotz — whose real name is Jon Weiner —
responded. “Now, he’s not really apologizing. He’s just using the words.”
“Well, I think he uses it the way that you use it which is to say ‘I’m sorry I have to say this existential truth that’s going to make you uncomfortable but here’s the existential truth.”
The host’s comments come only days after the president of ESPN issued a memo that urged employees to avoid “inflammatory comments” on social media after ESPN host Jemele Hill tweeted that the president was a “white supremacist.” Hill later said she regretted that her remarks “painted ESPN in an unfair light.”
“ESPN is not a political organization,” ESPN President John Skipper wrote. “Where sports and politics intersect, no one is told what view they must express. At the same time, ESPN has values. We are committed to inclusion and an environment of tolerance where everyone in a diverse work force has the equal opportunity to succeed. We consider this human, not political. Consequently, we insist that no one be denigrated for who they are including their gender, ethnicity, religious beliefs or sexual identity.”