Forget just calling the former president a white supremacist, former SportsCenter host Jemele Hill this week accused Donald Trump of something far worse: opening the door for an Aaron Rodgers vice presidential bid. After news broke this week that independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. explored adding Rodgers to his ticket, Hill pointed a finger at Trump for shoving the Jets quarterback more in our faces.
How? Well to Hill, the rise of Trump made any old average joe (or MVP QB) think they could aspire to national politics.
“It would be amusing if it weren’t also terrifying and if it weren’t also … arguably the most important leader in the world,” Hill said Wednesday on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz. “The unfortunate part of Trump’s presidency … is a lot of people feel like they can do the job. That they deserve to be in political office because he won.”
https://twitter.com/LeBatardShow/status/1767918949310603416
Hill, who was suspended from ESPN and generated international attention for calling Trump a “white supremacist” on Twitter in 2017, argued his legacy will be much worse than common racism.
“Calling him a white supremacist is the least of the troubling things that we have come to later discover about Donald Trump,” Hill said with a laugh. That came in response to Le Batard’s “It’s kind of amazing how tame your controversy is now’ remark about how her white supremacist comment took off,” and saw her relating her most infamous moment to this situation without prompting.
Making people think a real estate developer and reality TV star can succeed as president certainly could have more long-lasting damaging effects than Trump simply saying disgusting things.
“If you’re Aaron Rodgers, regardless of the numerous idiotic things that you’ve said, why would you think you don’t have a chance at this?” Hill questioned. “Our political cycle literally proves that you have a great shot at perhaps becoming the vice president simply because of your name, simply because he has a legion of people who do not mind his b*******.”
Hill is having fun at her own expense here when it comes to harking back to the white supremacist comment, laughing through her reference to it. But she is probably not wrong that Rodgers may have larger aspirations in part because of Trump.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.