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Laura Ingraham addresses backlash following defense of Drew Brees

On Thursday night, Fox News host Laura Ingraham addressed the backlash she received for coming to the defense of New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees the night before. The criticism over her remarks wasn’t just based on her defending Brees, however; it had more to do with the stark contrast she made between Brees’s right to his opinion, and her rebuke of LeBron James and Kevin Durant when they expressed their opinions about President Trump in 2018.

In an interview with Yahoo Finance on Wednesday, Brees equated kneeling during the national anthem to disrespecting the flag, failing to recognize that kneeling is, and always has been, to protest police brutality. Brees quickly came under fire for his comments, including from some of his Saints teammates. Brees posted a lengthy apology on Thursday.

On The Ingraham Angle Wednesday, Ingraham defended Brees, saying, “He’s allowed to have his view about what kneeling and the flag means to him. I mean, he’s a person. He has some worth, I would imagine. I mean, this is beyond football though, this is totalitarian conduct. This is Stalinist.”

Compare that to how Ingraham responded to James and Durant speaking unfavorably about Trump’s leadership and comments they perceive to be racist. Ingraham was nothing more than dismissive of their opinions.

“It’s always unwise to seek political advice from someone who gets paid $100 million a year to bounce a ball,” Ingraham said, adding, “Keep the political commentary to yourself. Or as someone once said, shut up and dribble.”

Ingraham was quickly called out for the disparity, including by LeBron James:

Some even called for her to lose her job.

So when Ingraham addressed the controversy on Thursday, she first wanted to be clear she does not view Brees’s opinion, and those expressed by James and Durant, in the same light, saying, “Well, without dwelling on the nuance between the two instances, let me be very clear about what I believe.”

Ingraham then struck a much different tune than she did two years ago.

“Every American. Every American. It has a God-given right to speak his or her own mind on any issue,” Ingraham said. “And I think in order to heal and shed light on gross injustices, our country needs more dialogue, not less. And we need more respect, not retribution.”

The Ingraham Angle airs weeknights at 10 p.m. on Fox News Channel.

Watch Chris Cuomo accuse Trump of attempting to ‘con Christians’ with religious photo ops:

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