Opinion | The author's opinion does not necessarily reflect Sarah Palin's view.
ESPN commentator Ryan Clark took to his X account to express his disdain for Donald Trump, declaring that he cannot respect him and referring to him as a “bigot.” Clark said, “It reminded me how divisive this country had gotten.”
Clark expressed concern over the divisiveness of the 2024 campaign and reflected on how it highlighted the country’s divisions.
“How divisive this election had gotten. When did the side that candidate feel like they won the Super Bowl? When did they brag about it? When did they boast about it? When did they throw it in your face? Because it was just their guy, not our guy,” Clark said. “Or, on the other side, the sadness, the depression. People truly thinking this not being a place that they could live.”
Clark contrasted Trump’s presidency with Barack Obama’s, praising the latter for his class and lack of scandals.
“It started when we wanted to make America great again, but wasn’t it before? I felt it was the greatest it had ever been,” Clark said. “For eight years, President Obama represented us with class and with grace and with elegance and with decency. There were no scandals. There were no impeachments. There were no felony charges. There were no indictments.”
Clark added, “There were none of these things that were unbecoming of the office. And we elected someone that ran a campaign based in bigotry and based in hate. And for those four years it wasn’t great.”
“In (2016), I remember someone sitting in that office calling people that peacefully protested sons of [expletive] and in 2020, in his last year, it wasn’t about just COVID to me, it was the most divided this country had ever been,” Clark said.
He acknowledged that not all Trump supporters endorse his rhetoric but maintained his lack of respect for Trump while expressing a desire to respect the office of the presidency.
“I think now the difficult part is I do understand that not everyone that supports him believes in his rhetoric, and everyone that supports him thinks bigotry is OK,” Clark said. “They told me that he believes in Christian values … For me, I’ll give him that grace because I do want salvation for all people. It’s going to be forever hard to respect the man – and I don’t and I won’t. But I will respect the office.”
Clark concluded by emphasizing his aim to remain reasonable in a divisive society, saying, “I want to be a sane man in an insane society. I want to be a reasonable man in an unreasonable world. So, I won’t be divisive. But I do hope, for all of our sakes, he understands that he’s our president.”
