Hillary Clinton defends kneeling NFL players, says 'that's not against our anthem or flag'

close

Video

Hillary Clinton defends NFL players kneeling during anthem

Clinton: It was to demonstrate in a peaceful way against racism and injustice in our criminal system.

Hillary Clinton on Sunday defended NFL players who knelt during the national anthem, saying kneeling is a “reverent” position that is not against “our anthem or our flag.”

The former Democratic presidential candidate, who was at the Southbank Centre's London Literature Festival, urged Democrats to use the issue against President Trump.

Clinton was embarking on a foreign trip to promote her book “What Happened.”

She said people should resist “what are very clear dog-whistles” to the Trump base, pointing to the example of kneeling NFL players.

“That's what black athletes kneeling was all about,” she said in response to a question about ways to resist the White House. ”That's not against our anthem or our flag.”

“Actually, kneeling is a reverent position,” she continued. “It was to demonstrate in a peaceful way against racism and injustice in our criminal system.”

Clinton urged the Democratic Party to continue to “resist” the president, saying “I think it would be a grave error for Democrats to recede from those fights, so therefore we have to stand up, fight back, resist.”

Clinton went on to compare the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential elections to the September 11 terrorist attack.

“We have really well-respected security and intelligence veterans saying this was a kind of cyber 9/11 in the sense that it was a direct attack to American institutions,” she said. “That may sound dramatic but we know they tried to recruit into election systems, not just social media propaganda.”