Sunny Hostin said Tuesday that Colin Kaepernick deserved an apology, back pay and a Nobel Peace Prize.
Amid renewed attention to Kaepernick’s national anthem protests, Hostin addressed the issue on ABC’s “The View.” (RELATED: Chuck Schumer Floats Theory Trump Is Taking Hydroxychloroquine Because ‘Maybe He Knows Someone Who Owns Part Of The Stock’)
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Whoopi Goldberg began the conversation by introducing the topic of the protests following George Floyd’s death. Floyd was an unarmed black man who died after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes.
“The protests have people rethinking their stance on things like kneeling and the question is, is Colin Kaepernick owed an apology? What do you think, Sunny?” Goldberg asked.
“Well, I don’t — I think he’s not only owed an apology, Whoopi,” Hostin replied. “I think he’s owed his job. I think he’s owed back pay. I think he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize. … When you listen to Roger Goodell’s ‘mea culpa,’ he mentions everything. He says, ‘We were wrong. We should have listened. Athletes in the league are now allowed to take a knee. We support peaceful protests.’ He mentions everything except the man who started … this peaceful protest.”
Goldberg pointed out that President Donald Trump has continued to oppose the NFL protests. “Well, you know who is still telling the NFL, ‘No kneeling,'” she said, showing a pair of Trump’s tweets on the matter. “So he’s not letting it go. Who’s on the right side here, Joy?”
“Well, you know, Sunny just said Colin Kaepernick is really the hero of this and should be rewarded instead of thrown out of his job,” cohost Joy Behar added. “The guy gave up his livelihood for a principle.”
Behar went on to compare Kaepernick to Muhammad Ali, whose stance on the Vietnam War cost him his boxing title and resulted in a ban from the sport.
“I think that Roger Goodell and the NFL need to get behind history and not be on the wrong side of it. I say that about a lot of people. Mitch McConnell and the rest of them, who are on the wrong side of history right now,” Behar concluded. “They’ll pay the price in years to come.”