ESPN’s Dan Le Batard rips company’s ‘cowardly’ policies in rant on Trump

Dan Le Batard isn’t sticking to sports.

The outspoken host of Highly Questionable on ESPN and The Dan Le Batard Show on ESPN Radio took to the air on Thursday and denounced President Donald Trump’s Wednesday political rally in North Carolina. But along the way, he challenged ESPN’s edict under new president Jimmy Pitaro of avoiding any talk of politics unless it intersects with the world of sports.

Le Batard said folks at ESPN haven’t “had the stomach” to fight the network’s new policy after the departure of former SportsCenter host Jemele Hill, who drew heat after calling Trump a “white supremacist” on Twitter in September 2017. He also said no one at ESPN ”talks politics on anything unless we can use one of these sports figures as a meat-shield in the most cowardly possible way to discuss these subjects.”

But Le Batard reserved his harshest words for Trump, who stood quietly at a political rally as supporters chanted “Send her back” in reference to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn), a Somali refugee who went on to become a naturalized American citizen and was eventually elected to Congress. Trump told reporters Thursday he disavowed the behavior of his supporters, but falsely claimed he had tried to stop them from chanting.

“There’s a racial division in this country that’s being instigated by the president,” La Batard added. “It is so wrong what the president of our country is doing, trying to go down getting reelected by dividing the masses at a time when the old white man… feels oppressed being attacked by minorities.”

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Le Batard appeared on his show Friday morning, though it remains unclear if he will face any punishment from the network over his comments. Internally, ESPN has reiterated to all its on-air personalities — including Le Batard — that it’s policy about discussion politics have not changed, according to multiple sources within the company.

Pitaro has pushed the network’s personalities away from discussing Trump and politics unless it directly involves the world of sports.

“I will tell you I have been very, very clear with employees here that it is not our jobs to cover politics, purely," Pitaro told reporters at a media event in August 2018.

Le Batard was born in Jersey City, N.J., but his parents — Gonzalo and Lourdes — both fled from Cuba to the United States. Le Batard’s father is a regular cast member on Highly Questionable, where he goes by “Papi.”

Le Batard wasn’t the only sports host to criticize the “sent her back” chant. FS1 First Things First host Nick Wright wrote on Twitter it was “abhorrent, obviously racist, dangerous rhetoric and not calling it out makes you complicit.”