On Friday, as protests erupted around the country following the killing of George Floyd, Vice President Mike Pence sent out a tweet decrying the protests. But he followed it with a tweet that said, in part: “We will always stand for the right of Americans to peacefully protest and let their voices be heard.”
As many sports fans quickly pointed out, however, Pence had very memorably and very famously not stood for the right for Americans to peacefully protest, when he walked out of an NFL game in 2017 after players kneeled during the playing of the national anthem. In what was pretty clearly a publicity stunt, Pence had done the opposite of what he was now saying in a tweet he was committed to doing.
Sports fans called him out quickly, en masse. And now some bigger names have gotten involved.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr called out Pence in a quote tweet, asking how he had “the gall” to say what he did.
NFL safety Eric Reid, currently a free agent, also called out Pence.
