Subscribe
Hellobeautiful Featured Video
CLOSE
ESPN The Party - Arrivals

Source: Robin Marchant / Getty

Hours after ESPN delivered their tired statement disavowing employee Jemele Hill for calling President Trump a “white supremacist” on Twitter, the White House jumped into the debate suggesting that the His & Hers host should be fired.

During the daily press briefing on Wednesday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders actually said with a straight face that a private citizen should lose their job for expressing their First Amendment right of free speech.

“I think that’s one of the more outrageous comments that anyone could make, and certainly something that I think is a fireable offense by ESPN,” Sanders said.

As the Huff Post pointed out, when asked by The Washington Post’s David Nakamura why an influential African-American sportscaster might make such a comment, Sanders only had this to say: “I’m not going to speak for that individual, but I know that the president has met, again, with people like Senator [Tim] Scott, who are highly respected leaders in the African-American community.”

She added that Trump is “committed to working with [leaders of the black community] to bring the country together. I think that’s where we need to be focused, not on outrageous statements like” the one by Hill.

First off, Hill is a leader in our community.

Secondly, perhaps Sanders forgot that this same Scott she mentioned, once said the president has no “moral authority” had been “compromised” for saying there was “blame of both sides” for the violence in Charlottesville last month. And regardless if Scott has since met with Trump and found common ground with him, that means nothing to most Black people given that Scott is the LONE Black Republican Senator in the United States.

He doesn’t speak for us. But nice try.

The National Association Of Black Journalists came out to defend Hill against the White House by issuing the following:

And Black Twitter snapped AWF about the WH’s apparent abuse of power:

Oh, and let’s not forget to point out the obvious hypocrisy here:

And yet being the boss that Hill is and always has been, she was on the air on Wednesday night unfazed by all the drama:

We stand with you Jemele!

RELATED NEWS:

Kaepernick, Others Defend Jemele Hill After ESPN’s Rebuke For Calling Trump ‘White Supremacist’

SportsCenter’s Tribute To ‘A Different World’ Is Giving Us Life!

Ha! Omarosa Being Pushed Out Of White House Inner Circle For ‘Triggering’ Trump

For 2024’s iteration of MadameNoire and HelloBeautiful’s annual series Women to Know, we knew we wanted to celebrate the people who help make the joys of film and television possible. To create art is to create magic. This year, we spotlight Hollywood Executive’s changing the face of cinema.