Trump Piles on ESPN's Jemele Hill After Her Suspension for Totally Correct Tweet

Welcome to WHAT NOW, a morning round-up of the news/fresh horrors that await you today.

After previously receiving a warning, but no punishment, for calling Donald Trump a “white supremacist” on Twitter, ESPN host Jemele Hill was suspended for two weeks for another tweet suggesting that NFL owners will really only be swayed by players’ national anthem protests if it begins to affect their bottom line.

Hill was responding to Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones saying he would bench any player who chose to sit or kneel during the national anthem. She tweeted, “Jerry Jones also has created a problem for his players, specifically the black ones. If they don’t kneel, some will see them as sellouts.”

“If you strongly reject what Jerry Jones said, the key is his advertisers. Don’t place the burden squarely on the players,” she later added. In a followup message, she clarified that she wasn’t advocating a boycott of the NFL.

So of course, our president had nothing better to do than pile on the anti-Hill hate this morning:

It’s the latest effort by Trump, who’s clearly very focused on the Republicans’ tax plan, to insert himself into the ongoing controversy over the NFL protests. On Sunday, Vice President Mike Pence staged a publicity stunt by walking out of a Colts game when players kneeled during the anthem, a move Trump later took credit for.

WHAT ELSE?

• Ivanka Trump wants to win, just like her father, so she’s reportedly taking an interest in tax reform, the next probable legislative failure for the GOP.
• Oh also, Trump is a “pressure cooker” who’s burning every bridge he touches in the Oval Office and beyond, making him an increasingly isolated president, The Washington Post reports.
• At least 10 are dead and more than 100 are missing after supercharged wildfires tore through California’s wine country on Monday, destroying 1,500 homes and prominent wineries with walls of flame nearly 100 feet high.

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