Jemele Hill to MSNBC's Al Sharpton: Trump uses 'racial pornography' to stoke his base

02-03-2018
4 min read

Jemele Hill of ESPN is taking aim again at President Donald Trump. 

The ESPN opinionist accuses Trump of employing "racial pornography" during an interview with the Rev. Al Sharpton that will air on the MSNBC show "PoliticsNation" on Super Bowl Sunday morning (8 a.m. ET).

MSNBC released a brief excerpt from the interview, in which Sharpton asks Hill about Trump's recent State of the Union address. 

SHARPTON: How do you feel when you heard the president in a State of the Union address still take a shot at people that are standing up about injustices?

HILL: I wasn't surprised and I think this is going to be — a probably, a constant thing for the president because it's a very easy dog whistle, it's low hanging fruit, it's what I like to call "racial pornography," because it's a way to stoke his base.

Hill previously called Trump a "white supremacist" on Twitter. Trump then attacked Hill and ESPN on Twitter. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders deemed her comments a "fireable" offense. ESPN issued a statement saying Hill's "inappropriate" actions did "not represent the position of ESPN."

"The anthem is a sports issue," ESPN spokesman Mike Soltys said Saturday when asked for comment about Hill's MSNBC interview.

MORE: Hill leaving 'SportsCenter' for The Undefeated

While Hill was admonished by ESPN for her previous Trump comments, she has stood firmly by them, and apologized only for putting her boss in an awkward position. She wasn't suspended for the Trump tweets, but later was suspended for two weeks with pay after another tweet in which she suggested consumers boycott Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones' corporate sponsors.

ESPN later revised its social media policy, warning talent to avoid "personal attacks and inflammatory rhetoric." The policy also includes, "Do nothing that would undercut your colleagues’ work or embroil the company in unwanted controversy.”

Hill recently asked ESPN to take her off her the 6 p.m. SportsCenter, a show she's co-anchored with Michael Smith for less than a year. In her new position, Hill will serve as a writer for The Undefeated and an on-air commentator across various ESPN shows. She anchored her last 6 p.m. SportsCenter with Smith on Friday night.

Sharpton previously said on MSNBC that ESPN would face the "wrath" of the civil rights community and threatened to lead a boycott of the network if Hill had been fired over her Trump comments.