Former Rare Staff
Long-time San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich got political on Monday after President Donald Trump said during a joint press conference with Sen. Mitch McConnell that “President Obama and other presidents, most of them didn’t make calls” to families of military men and women killed in action.
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Popovich reacted to Trump’s press conference by giving an interview with the progressive magazine The Nation and said the president is a “soulless coward” and a “pathological liar,” among other things.
On the phone call, Popovich began by saying “make sure this is on the record.” He criticized what he called Trump’s “never ending divisiveness” and defended previous presidents Obama and Bush, saying Trump’s remark about the phone calls was “so beyond the pale.”
Trump on soldiers killed in Niger: "President Obama and other presidents, most of them didn't make calls … I call when it's appropriate." pic.twitter.com/sgj5iEuDhz
— Axios (@axios) October 16, 2017
“This man in the Oval Office is a soulless coward who thinks that he can only become large by belittling others. This has of course been a common practice of his, but to do it in this manner — and to lie about how previous presidents responded to the deaths of soldiers — is as low as it gets,” he said.
Popovich went so far as to say the president is unqualified for his office.
“We have a pathological liar in the White House, unfit intellectually, emotionally, and psychologically to hold this office, and the whole world knows it, especially those around him every day,” he said. “The people who work with this president should be ashamed, because they know better than anyone just how unfit he is, and yet they choose to do nothing about it. This is their shame most of all.”
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It’s not the first time Popovich or other NBA coaches have gotten political in the days leading up to and during this presidency.
Previously, the Spurs coach called Trump “xenophobic, homophobic, racist [and] misogynistic.”
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