Carlos Bastarache: sarah-sanders-trump-nfl-anthem-protest-jpg.jpeg

.@PressSec has an absolutely gibberish answer when asked how Trump can say the NFL players kneeling is not about race—> pic.twitter.com/kn4MeX7LOw

— Tom Namako (@TomNamako) September 25, 2017

While Puerto Rico lies in shambles thanks to two separate hurricanes in as many weeks, Donald Trump spent most of the weekend railing against NFL players protesting the American flag. To say that the president doesn’t fully grasp the implications of (or meaning behind) Colin Kaepernick’s initial kneel would be an understatement, yet Trump’s insistence on driving the issue persists. And when reporters repeatedly asked Press Secretary Sarah Sanders about the matter during Monday’s press briefing, her nonsensical responses didn’t do much to clarify the debate.

Like when Sanders was asked how Kaepernick’s original protest (and protests since) can having nothing to do with race, as Trump suggested during an early morning tweet. Sanders, who apparently never said the word “race” once during the briefing, said “the focus has long since changed. And certainly the message, and what a lot has been communicated over these last several weeks — through this practice, through this protest by these players.” Or as BuzzFeed’s Tom Namako put it, Sanders gave “an absolutely gibberish answer when asked how Trump can say the NFL players kneeling is not about race.”

White House responds to reporter’s question if Trump regrets criticism of NFL players who protest during anthem https://t.co/PqMjk1cXTX

— CNN (@CNN) September 25, 2017

Sanders comments here came in the middle of an onslaught of mounting questions about the presidents remarks at an Alabama rally on Friday, and his subsequent tweets. Even so, what the press secretary said before and after her nonsense regarding the issue’s focus changing didn’t fare any better. “This isn’t about the president being against anyone. This is about the president and millions of Americans being for something. Being for honoring our flag, honoring our national anthem, and honoring the men and women who fought to defend it.”

“I think they should probably protest the officers on the field that are protecting them rather than the American flag.”

DAFUQ YOU SAY? pic.twitter.com/tvMojWZ7YH

— Isaac (@WorldofIsaac) September 25, 2017

Framed this way, Sanders — and Trump by extension — want to suggest the explosive NFL anthem protests have little to do with race and more to do with patriotism and respect. Yet the press secretary struggled to follow this logic completely when a reporter followed up on her insistence that Kaepernick and other players’ kneeling during the anthem wasn’t a protest about “police brutality, racial disparity and racial injustice.” “I think if the debate is really, for them, about police brutality,” she said, “they should probably protest the officers on the field who are protecting them instead of the American flag.” Yeah, she said that.

And if that weren’t enough, Sanders went even further and implied Trump’s calling Kaepernick a “son of a bitch” (as he did in Alabama last Friday) was within the president’s right as a defender of the American flag. “I always think it’s appropriate for the president to defend our flag, to defend the national anthem,” she said amid several interruptions. “It’s always appropriate for the president of this country to promote our flag, to promote our national anthem, and to ask people to respect it.”

White House on Trump’s ‘son of a bitch’ remark: “It’s always appropriate for the president to defend our flag.” https://t.co/F7FcwNTWy0

— CNN (@CNN) September 25, 2017