One day after crowds of President Donald Trump supporters breached the U.S. Capitol — Lakers star LeBron James spoke out in more detail and questioned how the response to the siege would have been different if the group of rioters was mostly Black.
“We live in two Americas, and that was a prime example of that yesterday,” James said following the Lakers’ 118-109 loss to the Spurs on Thursday night. “And if you don’t understand that or don’t see that after seeing what you saw yesterday then you really need to take a step back–not even just one step, maybe four or five or even 10 steps backwards and ask yourself…How do we want to live in this beautiful country? Because yesterday was not it.
“Being a part of a household with three kids–two boys, a daughter–a wife, a mother-in-law and so many Black folks in my household during that time and it’s on the TV, I couldn’t help but to wonder, if those were my kind storming the Capitol, what would have been the outcome? And I think we all know. There’s no ifs, ands or buts.”
“The events that took place yesterday was a direct correlation of the president that’s in the seat right now … of his actions, his beliefs, his wishes,” James told reporters.
“He cares about nobody besides himself. Nobody. Absolutely nobody. He doesn’t care about this country. He doesn’t care about his family.”
“He doesn’t care about anybody besides himself.”
The attack was led by pro-Trump supporters attempting to disrupt Congress members as they met to formally count the electors who will make Joe Biden president. In the riot, one woman was spotted trying to jump through a broken window and was promptly shot. She would later lose her life.
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Lakers forward Anthony Davis also criticized the police response as well:
“It’s like a double standard,” said Davis, via ESPN. “On the other side, an entire group runs into the nation’s Capitol and get escorted out the front door like everything is OK.
“And if I’m not mistaken–well, I’m not mistaken–they did take things, and when the Black Lives Matter [movement] protested it was, ‘Once the looting starts, the shooting starts.’ And to my knowledge, if you take something, you’re looting. And in that case, for them, they got escorted out the front door. And it’s just a slap in the face to us. It feels like we’re going backwards. We thought we were seeing change and then this happens.”
