Americans disapprove of the widespread NFL protests during the national anthem as well as President Trump’s sharp criticism of the protests, according to a new poll by CBS News/YouGov poll.
Fifty-two percent of Americans polled said they disapproved of NFL players kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial injustice, while 38 percent of Americans said they approved.
But participants similarly dislike President Trump’s harsh criticism of players who choose to protest, with 48 percent saying they disapprove of his comments. Thirty-eight percent said they approved of Trump’s response.
The poll comes as the president continues to take part in a war of words with the league.
Trump ripped NFL players during a rally last week for then-GOP Senate candidate Sen. Luther Strange (R-Ala.) in which he said: “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!’ ”
{mosads}The comments were quickly condemned by the NFL community, with the league’s commissioner, Roger Goodell, branding the president’s rhetoric as “divisive.”
Teams across the country publicly pushed back on Trump’s comments during games on Sunday and Monday, in which they linked arms and kneeled before kickoff and during the national anthem.
Trump on Thursday pushed back on claims that he was preoccupied with the NFL, saying “I don’t think you can disrespect our country, our flag, our national anthem. To me, the NFL situation is a very important situation. I’ve heard that before about ‘was I preoccupied,’ not at all, not at all.”
The CBS News/YouGov poll was conducted Sept. 26 to 28, 2017 among 1,335 U.S. residents. The poll’s margin of error was 3.8 percentage points.