President Donald Trump has said ESPN should apologize for the political statement tweeted by anchor Jemele Hill.
In his own Tweet Friday the president said:
ESPN is paying a really big price for its politics (and bad programming). People are dumping it in RECORD numbers. Apologize for untruth!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 15, 2017
Asked about that tweet at the daily press conference, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders repeated that she thought it was a fireable offense based on ESPN's own standard of having previously fired someone for expressing a political view.
"EPSN needs to stand by the standard they have set," she said. She cited ESPN's suspension of SportsCenter anchor Linda Cohn for expressing a political opinion, which was actually her opinion that ESPN had become too political.
ESPN released a statement saying: "The comments on Twitter from Jemele Hill regarding the president do not represent the position of ESPN. We have addressed this with Jemele and she recognizes her actions were inappropriate."
Hill apologized in a tweet Wednesday night for putting ESPN in the middle of what she said were her personal beliefs, for which she was unapologetic.
So, to address the elephant in the room ... #Factspic.twitter.com/RTrIDD87ut
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) September 14, 2017
