Ryan Clark is an NFL analyst for ESPN. Based on that information alone, you can probably guess how he felt about the presidential election.
To the surprise of no one, Clark voted for the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris. However, after it was announced that Donald Trump won the White House, he posted the following tweet the morning after Election Day.
1 of the beautiful things about America is democracy. Many have fought, & died for our right to choose OUR leadership. I was blessed to exercise that right again in 2024.
— Ryan Clark (@Realrclark25) November 6, 2024
The majority has spoken & Donald Trump is OUR President. I will respect him & his office as such. 🙏🏾 !
To be completely honest, I was taken aback by what Clark wrote. I did not expect the level of appreciation for our military, the lack of divisive rhetoric, or the good “sportsmanship” (for a lack of a better word) to come from a guy who is woke and a bit full of himself. I thought it was a great response, especially coming from an ESPN employee.
However, five days after that initial tweet, he completely changed his opinion.
Clark highlighted how our country has become rather divided (and honestly, it has). But he then pivoted to saying that our country used to be far more unified when we were under President Barack Obama.
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(If you hear someone scoff-laughing in the background as you read this, I apologize, its me).
Right after the election I posted that I would respect President Trump “him” as the President, & his office. People felt a way about that, & I understand. An election has never been more divisive, & the country is more split now than it’s been in decades.
— Ryan Clark (@Realrclark25) November 11, 2024
After 8 years of being… pic.twitter.com/L7IvfDZ8MZ
"It started when we wanted to make America great again, but wasn’t it before? I felt it was the greatest it had ever been," Clark said. "For eight years, President Obama represented us with class and with grace and with elegance and with decency. There were no scandals. There were no impeachments. There were no felony charges. There were no indictments. There were none of these things that were unbecoming of the office. And we elected someone that ran a campaign based in bigotry and based in hate. And for those four years it wasn’t great.”
I scoffed when I read this because Obama was actually a far more divisive president than people realize. Although his rhetoric was more charismatic and polished, he still did a lot to sow disunity in America.
Sen. Marco Rubio made this point very clear back in 2016.
Barack Obama on people left behind by new economy: “And it’s not surprising then they get bitter,they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) September 8, 2018
Also, the part about Clark saying Obama had no scandals while he was president is a load of nonsense. Fox News noted that Clark did not mention the Benghazi attack, Operation Fast and Furious, or the IRS targeting scandal - and that’s not an exhaustive list either.
After giving a completely unfounded and inaccurate assessment of Obama’s tenure as president, Clark finished his monologue by saying that he would not respect Donald Trump as a person.
"I think now the difficult part is I do understand that not everyone that supports him believes in his rhetoric and everyone that supports him thinks bigotry is OK," Clark said. "They told me that he believes in Christian values … For me, I’ll give him that grace because I do want salvation for all people. It’s going to be forever hard to respect the man – and I don’t and I won’t. But I will respect the office.
Whatever man, you do you. Trump is not a bigot, he just supports common sense (like saying you can’t switch genders or that illegal immigrants shouldn’t be here). But if that’s not enough for you, fine. Maybe four years of a (hopefully good) Trump presidency will change your mind.
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