The White House on Monday repeated its criticism of the Washington Redskins for ditching the team's name and logo, pointing to reports that the name didn't offend the majority of Native Americans.
Press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told a group of reporters that President Donald Trump had strongly criticized the team for considering the name change, saying it would make Native Americans "very angry" with the move. The decision followed pressure from corporate sponsors to change the name which is considered offensive.
“His tweet made it clear that these teams named their teams out of strength, not weakness, and he talked about the Washington Redskins and Cleveland Indians looking at changing their names,” McEnany said.
“He says that he believes the Native American community would be very angry at this and he does have polling to back him up,” McEnany said.
In a tweet last Monday, the president suggested the expected name change was a result of the NFL team trying to be “politically correct” and took a swipe at Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who infamously claimed she was part Native American. Warren apologized and recanted the claim.
“Indians, like Elizabeth Warren, must be very angry right now!” Trump tweeted.
McEnany mentioned a 2016 Washington Post poll that showed nine in 10 Native Americans weren’t offended by the name of Washington football team's controversial name.
“The Washington Post notes that many of these Native Americans voiced admiration for the team name like Barbara Bruce who said, ‘I’m proud of being Native American and of the Redskins. I’m not ashamed of that at all. I like that name,'” McEnany said.
McEnany added, “Gabriel Nez, another 29-year-old from the Navajo community: ‘I really don’t mind. I like it.’ There are several other comments like this in the Washington Post.”
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