ESPN host Max Kellerman blamed “extremist, right-wing agitators” for a “big percentage” of recent riots.
“When he talks about, like, Black Lives Matter, 93% of the protests are peaceful. The vast, overwhelming majority are peaceful. And, by the way, the 7% that are not — they have a very broad definition of what’s not, quote on quote, peaceful,” Kellerman said on Tuesday’s edition of First Take. “For example, if you block traffic or something like that, or if you respond to police provocation. And even then, a big percentage of that, that wasn’t peaceful, is actually outside agitators — extremist, right-wing agitators posing as protesters in order to make the protests look bad.”
Kellerman was responding to a viral clip of MMA fighter Colby Covington calling “woke athletes,” including Lakers star LeBron James, “spineless cowards.”
“You keep us safe … not these woke athletes,” Covington said after dedicating his fight against Tyron Woodley on Saturday to first responders and members of the military. “I’m sick of these woke athletes and these spineless cowards like LeBron James.”
Colby Covington calls LeBron James a “spineless coward”
— NBA Central (@TheNBACentral) September 20, 2020
The ESPN host was referring to a study published in part by Princeton University, which found that 93% of the protests gripping the United States this summer were peaceful. The report revealed that there were 570 “violent demonstrations” in 220 cities.
Police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, for example, said that officers arrested 175 people during a week of protests and riots that hit the city after the police shooting of Jacob Blake, 58% of whom lived outside of the city. The riots in Kenosha caused $11 million in damage.
Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old from nearby Antioch, Illinois, shot and killed two people during the unrest in Kenosha. Rittenhouse’s attorney says he was acting in self-defense.
A Trump supporter in Portland was also shot and killed, reportedly by a supporter of antifa, in late August. In an interview with Vice News, Michael Forest Reinoehl said he had “no choice” but to shoot Aaron Danielson, adding, “I mean, I had a choice: I could have sat there and watched them kill a friend of mine of color. But I wasn’t going to do that.”
Reinoehl was killed by police after he pulled a gun on officers as they were trying to arrest him.
Kellerman argued that there may be an ulterior motive to Covington’s comments about social justice, as the media attention the comments bring could boost his earnings.
“When he talks about being woke, yes, of course, there is a minority, but it’s a large minority in this country of people who would like people to stay asleep. They’d prefer their athletes sleeping on social issues, rather than woke,” Kellerman said. “It’s not that I’m questioning the sincerity of Covington’s beliefs, it’s that I question how much of it is his understanding that if he plays that up and defines a character, we’ll talk about him … he will be noticed, he will be talked about … and he will make more money that way.”
