President Obama’s eight-year reign in office is nearing an end, as either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton will become the 45th President.
With that being said, at a CNN presidential town hall today, Obama was asked about his stance on Colin Kaepernick kneeling for the national anthem.
“Well, as I’ve said before, I believe that us honoring our flag and our anthem is part of what binds us together as a nation. But I also always try to remind folks that part of what makes this country special is that we respect people’s rights to have a different opinion.”
“The test of our fidelity to our Constitution, to freedom of speech, to our Bill of Rights, is not when it’s easy, but when it’s hard,” he said. “We fight sometimes so that people can do things that we disagree with … As long as they’re doing it within the law, then we can voice our opinion objecting to it but it’s also their right.”
However, Obama looked at the other side as well.
“I want (the protesters) to listen to the pain that that may cause somebody who, for example, had a spouse or a child who was killed in combat and why it hurts them to see somebody not standing,” Obama said. “But I also want people to think about the pain he may be expressing about somebody who’s lost a loved one that they think was unfairly shot.”
Obama’s response shouldn’t have surprised anyone for a couple of reasons.
Of course he didn’t want to say anything to offend black people, but he also had to look at it from the perspective of being the president of this great country.