Hillary Clinton: Quite Telling That Trump Is Willing To Attack Black Athletes, "Dog Whistle" To Base

Hillary Clinton weighed in on President Trump's controversial comments about NFL players kneeling for the national anthem. Clinton said it is "quite telling" that Trump is "willing to attack black athletes" but not white supremacists, the Klan, or Putin. "He attacks black athletes as he did starting with his rally in Alabama. Continued on Twitter. And he attacks them for protesting peacefully for equality, for standing up for what they believe. And he does it once again to dog whistle to his base and to try to detract attention from other things that are going on. But it's quite telling that he is willing to attack black athletes," Clinton told MSNBC's Chris Hayes. Clinton said Trump's comments about the NFL is a "dog whistle" to his base and an attempt to appeal to America's "dark underbelly." From Clinton's interview on Monday's broadcast of <i>All In</i>: <blockquote>CLINTON: He attacks black athletes as he did starting with his rally in Alabama. Continued on Twitter. And he attacks them for protesting peacefully for equality, for standing up for what they believe. And he does it once again to dog whistle to his base and to try to detract attention from other things that are going on. But it's quite telling that he is willing to attack black athletes. He never says anything of an insulting manner towards white supremacists or neo-Nazis or Ku Klux Klaners or Vladimir Putin, right? And then we've got North Korea, right, which is looming over us, and which has continued to escalate verbally with him sort of pushing it along. I don't understand what their strategy is. And now we've got the North Koreans saying well, if he is going to talk like that and essentially declare war against us, we're going to believe we have the right to shoot down American planes. All of this is swirling around at the same time. But he is making choices. And his choices are to continue to stimulate, motivate, and get the acclimation from his hard-core base that he saw in Alabama, and that he continues to reach out to. And it's almost without regard to the consequences of trying to denigrate American athletes for exercising their constitutional rights, for continuing to pick rhetorical battles with North Korea?. It is something that he instinctually, viscerally does. But I think there is also a calculation to it.</blockquote> Watch the full interview: <iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uJIoW0rpbLU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>