Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie agreed with the New York Mets who walked off the field and protested Thursday night's game against the Miami Marlins in protest to the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
“If you saw [outfielder] Dominic Smith's comments the night before, they were very emotional and genuine," Christie said, during an interview with "The Brian Kilmead Show. He added,"and if you know Dom Smith, he is generally a very happy, upbeat, optimistic guy and, so, for him to make those comments, I think what the Mets players were saying yesterday was, 'If our teammate who we really love and care about feel that strongly about it, we’ll stand with him tonight.'"
Smith knelt before Wednesday's game during the "The Star-Spangled Banner" and talked to reporters about the move after the Mets 5 to 4 win over the Marlins.
“Just with everything that's going on in the world, I just decided to take a little notice, and for the world to take a step back and really just see what's going on ..." Smith said. "That's why I chose tonight. I felt like tonight was the perfect night, especially with other teams canceling their games, especially looking at the NBA. They canceled all their games today, so I just wanted to make a stand like that and show my support.”
Smith added: "The most difficult part is to see that people still don’t care. For this to continually happen, this just shows the hate in people’s hearts. That just sucks, you know. Being a Black man in America is not easy."
The protests began on Wednesday after the Milwaukee Bucks decided not to step on the court to play their first-round NBA playoff game against the Orlando Magic. The NBA and NHL has suspended their postseason games through Friday. Major League Baseball postponed games on Wednesday and Thursday when players decided to show support to the other sports leagues.
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