Former President Donald Trump is slamming the NBA’s LeBron James for his tweets about the police officer who shot and killed 16-year-old Columbus, Ohio resident Ma’Khia Bryant, calling the Los Angeles Lakers superstar’s comments “racist rants” that are “divisive, nasty, insulting, and demeaning.”
“LeBron James should focus on basketball rather than presiding over the destruction of the NBA, which has just recorded the lowest television RATINGS, by far, in the long and distinguished history of the League,” Trump said in a statement released by his office Thursday night.
“His RACIST rants are divisive, nasty, insulting, and demeaning. He may be a great basketball player, but he is doing nothing to bring our Country together!” the former president added. James on Wednesday posted a photograph of Nicholas Reardon, identified as the police officer who shot the teenager, and added the words “YOU’RE NEXT #ACCOUNTABILITY.”
He pulled the tweet down after an outcry from people who said he was inciting violence against Reardon, but did not walk back his statements over the shooting and other incidents of violence.
“I’m so damn tired of seeing Black people killed by police,” James, who is from Ohio, wrote. “I took the tweet down because its being used to create more hate — This isn’t about one officer. It’s about the entire system and they always use our words to create more racism. I am so desperate for more ACCOUNTABILITY.”
He also wrote that “ANGER does any of us any good and that includes myself! Gathering all the facts and educating does though! My anger still is here for what happened that lil girl. My sympathy for her family and may justice prevail!”
Twitter repeatedly censored Trump’s posts over accusations of misinformation and later permanently suspended his account in the wake of the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol
“After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter — we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” Twitter said in booting Trump.
