Trump demands apology from ESPN over Jemele Hill’s critical tweets

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday said ESPN should apologize for an anchor’s tweets calling him a “white supremacist” and “bigot,” and his press secretary insisted that those statements are a “fireable offense.”

“Sports Center” host Jemele Hill on Monday posted the tweets — since taken down — and on Wednesday told ESPN she was sorry she painted the network in “an unfair light.”

ESPN accepted her apology and said her tweets don’t reflect the network’s view.

Trump tweeted Friday: “ESPN is paying a really big price for its politics (and bad programming). People are dumping it in RECORD numbers. Apologize for untruth!”

Trump press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended her statement on Wednesday that Hill’s tweets are “a fireable offense,” and said it’s up to ESPN whether to fire Hill.

But she added that ESPN should be consistent in applying its standards, saying it had suspended anchor Linda Cohn for “for expressing a political viewpoint.”

In April, Cohn said on WABC that ESPN’s liberal leanings were in a small part to blame for its declining viewership. But ESPN has not said if it suspended her for that statement.