One of President Trump's biggest supporters is sounding off about pregame displays of protest during the NFL season opener.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani ripped the Houston Texans for staying inside the locker room during the playing of the national anthem on Thursday night, in a fiery bigoted rant published by TMZ Sports.
"Maybe they should stay in the locker room forever," Giuliani told the outlet. "Maybe that's where they belong. I think it's horribly disrespectful."
Some fans in Kansas City on Thursday night appeared to agree, raining palpable boos down on players from the host Chiefs and visiting Texans as they locked arms in a display of unity after skipping the anthem.
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The former mayor appeared to be confused about which sport the Texans play during the TMZ interview, referring to them several times as "baseball players" and citing wildly inaccurate stats about immigration demographics among NFL players.
"I think they should kiss the ground of the stadium that they're in America," Giuliani said. "Where the hell would they make that kind of money?
"I mean, what, one-third of them are from somewhere else? They should thank god they're in America. Nobody else in this world has an immigration problem but America."
Giuliani delivered the racist tirade from the 9/11 Memorial, where ceremonies were being held to mark the anniversary of the terror attacks.
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"The real heroes aren't them. The real heroes are the men and women who ran into that building to save people. They didn't ask if they were white, black, homosexual, gay, or heterosexual -- they just ran in to save people.
"The Black Lives movement is a movement that hates police. They hate police and call for the killing of the kinds of people who ran into this building. So if we have another terrorist attack, who's going to come and save us -- those baseball players? The Black Lives Matter? No, the police are going to come. And those baseball players should be ashamed of themselves."