President Donald Trump made an offer to NFL protesters Friday saying he will be asking them to provide a list of people they believe should be pardoned, and he will consider it.
“What I’m going to do is I’m going to say to them instead of talk…I am going to ask all of those people to recommend to me — because that’s what their protesting. People that they think were unfairly treated by the justice system … I understand that. I’m going to ask them to recommend to me people that were unfairly treated. Friends of theirs or people they know about and I’m going to take a look at those applications. If I find — if my committee finds they’re unfairly treated, we will pardon them or at least let them out,” Trump said.
Trump’s offer is the first conciliatory offer he has made to the NFL protestors he has derided for kneeling during the national anthem and comes while he is considering pardons increasingly in the early phases of his presidency. Trump also said that he has a list of approximately 3000 people he is considering pardoning who he believes have been unfairly treated by the criminal justice system.
Trump took care to note during his answer that he is still not satisfied the changes to NFL rules which bar players from kneeling during the national anthem because it allows them to remain in the locker room while it is being played.