American Vice-President Mike Pence left an Indianapolis Colts game on Sunday evening, after players from the San Francisco 49ers knelt during the American national anthem.
A former Governor of Indiana, Pence stated he was going to the Colts game to the game, which was honouring the career of Peyton Manning. The quarterback had a statue unveiled in his honour on Saturday and saw his number 18 jersey retired too.
Looking forward to cheering for our @Colts & honoring the great career of #18 Peyton Manning at @LucasOilStadium today. Go Colts! pic.twitter.com/C3aCYUNpqG
— Vice President Mike Pence Archived (@VP45) October 8, 2017
Less than 10 minutes after kickoff, Pence took to Twitter to claim he had left the game, as he would "not dignify any event that disrespects our soldiers, our Flag, or our National Anthem".
The San Francisco 49ers has numerous players kneel during the anthem as has been the case all season.
I stand with @POTUS Trump, I stand with our soldiers, and I will always stand for our Flag and our National Anthem. pic.twitter.com/B0zP5M41MQ
— Vice President Pence (@VP) October 8, 2017
An hour later, Donald Trump revealed he asked Pence and his wife Karen to leave the stadium "if any players kneeled".
49ers player Eric Reid, joined Colin Kaepernick in taking a knee throughout last season. He called Pence's actions as "a PR stunt".
He knew our team has had the most players protest. He knew that we were probably going to do it again. This is what systemic oppression looks like. A man with power comes to the game, tweets a couple of things out and leaves the game with an attempt to thwart our efforts.
It looks like Donald Trump's battle against the NFL is not stopping anytime soon.
