One-time NBA great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar ripped into President Donald Trump and hinted that he thinks Trump would have approved of the practice of slavery ended by the U.S. civil war, during an appearance on former TV news anchor Katie Couric’s podcast.
Abdul-Jabbar told Couric that he felt the U.S. was “moving backward” and went on to claim that Trump would have loved slavery during a discussing of its history in America, USA Today reported.
“To make a profit off of cotton, that was the premise. (Slaves are) Property,” Abdul-Jabbar said. He added that the system lasted “until people realized these people were human beings. Thank God for President Lincoln, despite what Mr. Trump has to say.”
Despite that Trump’s temporary halt to travel from a series of terror-torn nations doesn’t really ban Muslims from entering the U.S., Abdul-Jabbar went on to attack Trump’s travel order as “pure evil.”
The former basketballer, who converted to Islam in 1971, also said that Trump is “scapegoating” Muslims.
“I think he’s trying to scapegoat one group, and it’s caused some very bad things to start happening,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “Hate crimes have risen; we saw what happened in the Jewish cemetery in St. Louis, the mosque in Texas, an imam in New Jersey was murdered — it’s getting more serious, acts of violence directed at Muslims, or against people other people think are Muslims.”
The NBA’s all-time scoring leader then launched into a series of rote, liberal talking points accusing Trump and the Republicans of being for the “rich” despite that millions of lower and middle-class voters are the ones who put Trump over the finish line in last year’s election.
“They’re trying to return tax dollars to the wealthiest 1%, on the backs of people who need money for better educational opportunities,” the longtime left-wing activist said. “And our roads, airports, train infrastructure, bridges, tunnels – they need to be upheld. Everybody wants to save money, taking away from the things that benefit the middle class and give lower-class people jobs.”
Abdul-Jabbar has spent decades disgorging controversial, liberal statements and he was an ardent critic of Donald Trump during the late presidential election.
During the campaign last year, the former player called Trump a racist, attacked him over his statements on Islam, and exclaimed that Trump intended to set up a “tyranny” if he won office. Abdul-Jabar even claimed Trump was helping ISIS by daring to note that ISIS is a Muslim-based terrorist outfit.
The former NBA great doesn’t just stick to Trump bashing, either. Last year Abdul-Jabar compared anti-American NFL protester Colin Kaepernick to Thomas Jefferson as Kaepernick spent an entire NFL season attacking the United States, police officers, and the U.S. military.
He also attacked the movie La La Land for being “bigoted” because it “misleads” on race, romance and jazz music.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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