Mike Pence’s Chief of Staff Calls NBA’s Jacob Blake Protests ‘Absurd and Silly’

Marc Short, the Chief of Staff for Vice President Mike Pence, opened up about the administration’s thoughts on the NBA protesting the Jacob Blake shooting. During an appearance on CNN, Short was asked what are Pence’s thoughts on players boycotting games, which then led to WNBA and Major League baseball doing the same thing. Short says Pence has no thoughts on it but had two words to describe the move.

“I don’t know if you can see the administration weigh in one way or the other, in my mind it’s absurd and silly,” Short said. “The National Basketball Association was a continued acceptance of non-speaking out against China’s continued abuse.” Short was then interrupted when he started talking about China. But he added the NBA is “continuing to allow NBA players to continue to support China when they continue to persecute people for speaking out of their minds… If they want to protest, I don’t think we care. If they say we’re not going to play any more games, I don’t think that’s a position you’re going to see us speak out on one way or the other.

Short was then asked if Donald Trump would be willing to meet with the NBA about it. “I think we’ve been willing to meet with professional athletes time and again,” Short said. “You’ve seen that cooperation from this administration from the start. But I do think that there is a discrepancy between what the NBA is chosen to speak out against and what they don’t speak out against.”

Blake, a Black man from Wisconsin, was shot by police seven times while attempting to enter the driver’s side of his vehicle. Officers were responding to a domestic dispute, and it was reported that Blake was there to break up a fight. When Blake was shot, he was rushed to the hospital, and his lawyer said he is paralyzed from the waist down. The NBA made the decision to call off the three postseason games on Wednesday when the Milwaukee Bucks boycotted their game against the Orlando Magic.